


A is for Advent

by AnonChan1



Series: What Doesn't Kill You [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character(s) of Color, Dean Winchester Needs a Hug, Dissociation, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Hunter Jessica Moore, I didn't know there were tags for that :0, Jessica Moore Lives, Jessica Moore can and will punch Dean in the face for her BF, Jessica Moore: Forensic Analyst, Mental Health Issues, Panic Attacks, Protective Winchesters (Supernatural), Sam Winchester Needs a Hug, Self-Harm, Thank god Dally likes giving them, lgbtq character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-09 00:39:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 27,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17991569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonChan1/pseuds/AnonChan1
Summary: Advent (Noun)- The arrival of a notable person, thing, or eventMagdalene "Dally" Mary Winchester is many things- She's four and eight years older than her younger brothers, Dean and Sam, respectively. She's an adopted child. She's of Asian descent. She's a person who loves her family.What Dally is not is prepared for how absolutely crazy things start to go when her youngest brother, Sam, gets back on the road with them. She is not ready for the consequences of saving someone the entire paranormal world seems to think should have died. She is not an overtly confrontational person with her family, even if she's realizing she has to be. She is not prepared for her father to go missing.But she supposes needs must- Someone's gotta look out for the self-sacrificial morons that have claimed places in her heart.





	A is for Advent

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello! You can call me Anon, and I... Guess I wanted to say hello? This is a story that took a lot for me to start working on, much less post- And I only got that far because of my friend Kris :> Anyways, if you're reading this, I'm hoping you enjoy it- And with any luck, I'll improve over time.
> 
> Um, let's see... There will eventually be another fandom added in, though I want to see if anyone can figure out what it'll be (Not you, Kris, you already know). Tags will be added as they become relevant, so be on the look out! 
> 
> And finally, for those who'd like to know, Dally's FC is Lucy Liu! Because I love her.

**_November 2, 1983_ **

**_Lawrence, Kansas_ **

“Come on, let’s say good night to your brother.”

Mary Winchester walks into her youngest child’s nursery with her middle child, Dean, on her hip, and her eldest, Magdalene- Though she usually went by Dally- Clinging to the back of her dress, blinking bleary eyes as her mother flicked the light on. They’d had a tiring day, but the eight-year-old refused to go to bed without saying good night to her littlest brother, and Dean had insisted on doing the same- The woman had no doubt that this would become a ritual for a long while.

Setting the four-year-old down, she found that she couldn’t resist smiling a bit as he immediately clung to his older sister’s hand and eagerly dragged her across the short distance to Sammy’s crib, scrambling to pull his body over the bars a bit so he could kiss his baby brother’s forehead.

“Good night, Sam.”

He pulls away, and like clockwork, his sister follows his actions, quickly bending over to give the baby a light peck on the forehead before she scampers off.

“Good night, Sammy. Sweet dreams.”

Mary moves behind the two easily, pressing a hand to Dean’s back to steady him as Dally moves aside to give her room. She brushes an idle hand through the little girl’s short hair as she passes, and the smaller of the two leans into the action for a moment before her mother removes it in favor of smoothing it over Sammy’s tiny head, leaning down to give her own show of affection.

“Good night, love.”

She smiles for a moment, content. Her family was almost complete, they were just missing-

“Hey, you two.”

_Well, speak of the devil and he appears_ , she thinks, a fond smile on her lips.

“Daddy!”

Mary turns around, smile still painting her lips at the sight of her children rushing to greet their father- Dean had allowed the man to scoop him up with glee, and Dally had attached herself to his side in a way that had become familiar to them all, ever since they’d adopted the little girl six years ago.

“Hey, you two,” John repeats what he said when he first entered, a small grunt escaping him as he lifts Dean into the air with ease and uses his free hand to return Dally’s hug. “So, what do you think? Think Sammy’s ready to toss around a football yet?”

Dean giggled, grin stretching wider, and Dally buried her face in her father’s side, hiding her silly smile and muffled laughter.

“No, Daddy!”

“No?”

Mary walks over to the three, smile still present. “You got them?”

“I got them.”

Her smile turns tired at his words, and she slips out of the room to prepare for bed, Dally trailing behind her and once again clinging to her nightgown. John’s eyes follow the two of them before they move back to the nursery and his youngest son. His baby.

“Sweet dreams, Sam.”

John smiles, turns the light off, and goes to put Dean to bed.

No one except for the baby himself was around to witness the mobile begin to spin overhead on its own.

No one was around to witness the clock’s methodic ticking grinding to a halt.

No one was around to see the light flicker before going out.

And as all of this happened, in a darkened corner, yellow eyes flare to life.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

Mary wakes up to the sound of Sammy crying from the baby monitor. She groans a bit at the noise, because she loves him, she does, but she’s also tired because Dally had suddenly become fidgety as she was tucking her in, which meant she had to take some extra time to reassure her that nothing was wrong- She’d made a big show of flinging open the little girl’s closet to scare away any monsters.

So, tired as she finds herself, the blonde rolls over, fully intending to ask her husband to check on him-

“John?”

Only to find the man not in bed, as she had assumed he would be. She huffs, chagrined, and drags herself out of bed to check on her child, yawning before she stops in the doorway, confused.

“John? Is he hungry?”

“Shhh...”

“…Okay.”

Grateful that John had somehow managed to get the boy to quiet down even as she wonders how he’d gotten out of bed without waking her, Mary finds herself wandering downstairs, towards the crackling of TV static. Maybe she was just that out of practice? She supposed it didn’t matter, it was just John- And she knew he’d never hurt a single member of their family-

A light flickered in the hallway, and Mary finds herself blinking, bemused- All it takes to fix it is a simple tap, but in her tired state, she finds it a bit funny.

And then she hears the snoring. Snoring she knows, because she’s been sleeping beside it for years.

Dread pools in her stomach.

If John is asleep down here- And he has to be, she’d have seen him pass her otherwise- Then who was upstairs in the nursery… With… With her baby.

With Sammy.

Terror gripping her like an iron vice, she whips around and sprints upstairs. She has to get there, she had to protect Sammy, had to protect _her baby, God, how was she so stupid_ -

“Sammy? Sammy!”

She comes to a halt in the nursery, swearing at herself for getting this out of practice. She has nothing on her, nothing she could use to defend her family, the people she loved-

She swallows, helplessness overwhelming her as she meets familiar yellow eyes.

_Please no_.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

John finds himself jolting out of his nap on the couch when he hears a scream- And if the situation was different, he’d have thought it was the TV (He _had_ been watching a horror movie, after all), but it wasn’t different, because he knew that voice.

“Mary!”

He tears himself from his position, practically sprinting up the stairs-

“Mary?”

_The nursery, it came from the nursery, oh god, Mary, Sammy, please be okay-_

“Mary!?!”

He damn near rips the door off its hinges, terror coursing through his system like a sick imitation of blood, looking around wildly-

“Mary?”

And finding absolutely nothing. _But it came from here, he knew he’d heard it_ -

Sighing, he walks over to Sammy’s crib- Maybe Mary was right, and needed to stop watching TV before he fell asleep.

“Hey, Sammy. You okay?”

The smile that finds its way to his lips is automatic as his baby coos back at him- Sammy just has that effect on people, though. He just has to look at them and they’re all smiles- Or maybe that was his bias as a father talking? Heh-

He blinks, and suddenly something is… Off. There hadn’t been anything red next to Sammy’s head just a second ago, so what the hell-

Worried that he could be injured, he reaches out to touch the dot, hesitant but knowing he has to, because if something was wrong with Sammy and he just ignored it he would _never_ be able to forgive himself-

Three more drops appear, on his hand this time, red as the other and dripping from above. A sickening sense of dread curls through him, and he stares.

It came from above… He has to look up. He _has_ to. But. He doesn’t _want_ to. What the hell was up there-

He jerks his head up before he can lose his nerve, and all at once he wishes he hadn’t- His breath locks tight in his chest, his body freezes, grief and horror wrap tight, ironclad chains around his insides, and the only words in his head are a broken record of no no n _o no no no nonono-_

“No! Mary!”

Mary- The woman above him, the _love of his fucking life_ \- Is strung above him, pinned to the ceiling like a sick kind of pinata, beautiful white nightgown stained red from the blood that leaked out of the injury on her stomach, eyes wide in terror and pain and _help me John, help me, I’m dying, help help helphelphelp-_

The terror and sickness only heighten when she bursts into flames, fire coiling around her like a perverse sort of flower and the stench of burning skin clinging to his senses- And suddenly all he could see in her eyes was _help Sammy help my baby save him John John JOHNJOHNJOHNJOHN-_

Sammy’s wails snap him out of it, and, frantic to protect him, he scoops the child up in his arms- He has to get him out _he has to it was Mary’s last wish-_ And sprints out of the nursery.

“Daddy!”

His head snaps around, wild eyes falling on his other two children- _They were safe, thank god, they were safe-_ And relief surges through him that at least he still has them.

But he could worry about that later.

“Dad?”

Dally’s dark eyes peer up at him, terrified and worried and wet with tears but he could worry about that later because there was _no time, he had to save Mary he had to-_

“Dally, I need you to hold onto Dean and Sammy as tight as you can and take them outside- Don’t look back!”

Her eyes widen, and she looks around before she glances at him again, eyes asking a silent question-

_Where’s Mommy?_

Dean takes Sammy into his arms, but they’re both staring at him and they didn’t have _any fucking time they needed to leave needed to get out-_

“Now, Magdalene, go! Take them both and _go!_ ”

She blinks once, gave a shaky, tight nod, and scoops her younger brothers up- Something made infinitely easier by Dean cradling Sammy in his small arms- And then she pauses one final time.

“I love you, Daddy.”

And then she takes off like a rocket, barely feeling the stairs beneath her feet- All she’s aware of is the heat, her parents’ absence ( _She hears, vaguely, her father’s screams- “Mary, no!”- But she couldn’twouldn’tdidn’t think about it_ ), and her precious, precious cargo.

She clings to that final one a just little bit tighter as she bursts through the front door, only pausing to ensure that her crashing through it hadn’t hurt her baby brothers- And then she takes off again, running as fast as she could, something terrible and sickening clinging to her body as she does.

She pauses, just a bit, and stares up at the nursery, entire tiny body shuddering. She sees Dean doing the same.

Daddy had told her to take care of them.

“It’s… It’s okay Dean… Sammy. We- We’re gonna be okay.”

Dean presses himself a bit closer to her, the youngest cradled close to his own chest, fear and confusion in his eyes, but Dally doesn’t know what’s going on any better than he does- She just has an overwhelming feeling of _badness_ , and the sense that everything had gone horribly, terribly _wrong_.

But she doesn’t have time to say any of that, because the next second her father comes sprinting out of the house, grief and terror warring in his eyes as he sweeps his children off their feet and into his arms, still running away from their home.

And then the nursery explodes.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

The Winchester family (Or what remained of it, anyways) don’t know what to do- All they can seem to manage, at the moment, was a blank stare of the remains of an old life. Privately, John finds himself grateful that Sam, at least, wouldn’t ever remember this night- He was just too young to be aware of it. But his other children- Dean and Dally-

The surge of bitterness that wells up within him made his eyes narrow a bit at the wreckage before him, gaze hollow and grief sinking deep into his soul. His jaw clenches, teeth grinding together as he holds all he has let just a little bit closer.

Mary was dead.

Mary Winchester, his wife, the love of his life, the one who promised to help him raise a family, the mother of his children- Was dead. The vision of Mary flashes in his head again- Pinned up like a sick piece of artwork above her youngest child- And he knows, with everything he has, that it was no accident.

He clings to his kids a little bit tighter, Sammy in his arms and Dean sandwiched between himself and Dally.

His eyes darken.

Something had murdered his wife, had torn his family apart and ruined everything he loved.

_He was going to fucking kill it._

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

**_October 31, 2005_ **

**_Stanford University, California_ **

“Sam! Get a move on, would ya? We were supposed to be there like, fifteen minutes ago.”

Jessica Moore steps through the doorway, voice exasperated and body donned in a skimpy nurse costume, idly fiddling with her hair to get the whole thing right.

“Sam! You coming or what?”

“Do I have to?”

Sam Winchester pokes his head out from the doorway behind his girlfriend, eyes wide and very clearly pleading with his girlfriend to let him off the hook. Unfortunately, this wasn’t something Jess was known to do, especially once she’d built up a resistance to his puppy dog eyes.

“Yes! It’ll be fun- And where’s your costume?”

He gives her a stubborn look at that- One that practically screams about how going to the party was the best she would get from him, regardless of how much he loved her.

“You know how I feel about Halloween.”

She laughs a bit at that one.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

Jess raises her glass in the air, a proud, albeit teasing smile on her lips and a loving glint in her eyes as the party life flowed around the table she, Sam, and a friend were occupying at the moment- The words of praise came from her with ease. “So here’s to Sam, and his awesome LSAT victory.”

“Alright, alright, it’s not that big a deal.” Sam looks both exasperated and embarrassed by the blonde’s constant bragging, but her grin only widens a bit, clearly more than happy to continue on about how proud she is of her lover.

“He acts all humble, but he scored a 174.”

“Is that good?”

“Scary good,” Jess confirms sagely as she raises her glass to take a drink. Their companion grins at the confirmation, circling the taller male with a sly smile of his face, face paint catching the light as he did so- Clearly just as proud of Sam as Jess was.

“See, there you go- You are a first round draft pick, you can go to any law school you want.”

“Actually,” Sam interjects, seeming almost sheepish, “I got an interview here Monday. If it goes okay, I think I got a shot at a full ride next year.”

Jess picks up on his nerves easily, though- And she hates letting her loved ones wallow in self-doubt when she can do something about it. So she grins at him, eyes loving and confident- She hopes he sees how she feels in them. Hopes he sees how proud of him she was, and how far he’d come since they met, and how she was the luckiest girl in the world, bar none, to have him look at her and love her.

Sometimes, the love she feels for Sam leaves her full enough to burst.

“Hey, it’s gonna go great.”

“It better.”

Their friend interjects, eyes curious. “How does it feel to be the golden boy in your family?”

Sam gives a short, “Ah, they don’t know,” in response- He has nothing against his current companions, but talking about his family wasn’t exactly high up on his to-do list. Not when he’d gotten so far- Although, now that he thought about it… “Actually, my older sister might know- She tends to be pretty good with finding out about this stuff. Not sure if she’ll say anything about it, though.”

“Oh no, I would be gloating! Why not?”

“And hey, this older sister- Is this the Dally you’ve talked about? Why wouldn’t she say anything to you- Shouldn’t she be proud?” Jess’s nose wrinkles at the very thought of _not_ being proud of Sam- If it were her, she’d be throwing around how amazing he was all the time. But then, she was dating the giant goofball-

Sam himself interrupts her train of thought. “Because we’re not exactly the Bradys- And yeah, don’t get me wrong, Dally would be proud, but she’s mostly been with my dad and my older brother, and we… Aren’t exactly on speaking terms right now.” Jess’s heart aches, just a bit, at how sad he sounds about that, and she gave him a soft look.

“Look, I’m sure that one day, she’ll be able to get away from them, and I bet she’ll tell you exactly how amazing you are when that happens.” And even if Sam gives a disbelieving laugh at that idea, it was still a laugh, so she counts it as a victory.

“Well, I can drink to that- More shots, anyone?”

“No, we’re good, thanks.”

Finally, they’re left alone, and Jess leans into him, smiling again. “Okay, seriously, I’m proud of you, and you’re gonna knock them dead on Monday, and you’re gonna get that full ride. I know it.”

And Sam has to take a moment to breath at that, amazed by how much this wonderful woman believes in him. He grins, shaking his head teasingly.

“What would I do without you?”

“Crash and burn,” Jess fires back, all teasing smiles and fond eyes- And as she pulls him in for a kiss, he can’t help but think she’s right.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

It is, ironically enough, a crash that jolts Sam back into awareness- And for a moment he’s grateful, because it had been one of his less than pleasant dreams again, where Jess had been-

He shakes the thought, already slipping out of bed. _Fucking dad, telling kids how his wife died in detail, who the hell does that?_

Instead, he focuses on a question- Who the hell broke into their apartment at fuck-o-clock in the morning.

Keeping himself quiet and doing his best to make sure that the intruder wouldn’t hear him (And therefore wouldn’t go for the bedroom, and, by proxy, Jess), Sam steps into the hall with a few easy strides- He’d forgotten how easily this came to him.

_At least his upbringing gave him one perk. Still sucked ass, though._

He shakes that thought off and scans the area for any signs for forced entry- The door seemed okay, and he didn’t think they came through any vents, because those things were tiny as hell and a pain in the ass to deal with besides, which left the window…

Which was open.

_And bingo was his name-o._

One question answered, then- Now where the hell was the one who broke in? He hadn’t seen them yet, which meant they either left already or went somewhere farther in.

Risking another look, he hears the floor creaking, and a glance shows him the brief sight of a tall shadow passing somewhere in front of him.

Pressing himself flat against the wall behind the door, he tries to steady his breathing- The longer this asshole thought they were gonna get away with it, the more taken off guard they’d be, and the better his chance of getting rid of them.

And then they walk through the door- They’re all confident swagger and arrogance, like they think they’re untouchable-

He doesn’t bother taking in anymore than that, because in the next second, once his mystery person was clear of the door, he lunges, grabbing for their shoulder- Maybe, if he was lucky, they didn’t know how to fight.

They knew how to fight, of course, and they show him as much by retaliating with something close to glee.

Neither of the two notice the sound of a door creaking open, engaged as they are.

Sam manages- Somehow- To lead the other into the living room, blood pumping in his veins in a way it hasn’t for nearly four years, but he quickly finds himself pinned beneath a heavy weight, gasping as the air is taken out of him.

_Damnit._

“Woah, easy there, tiger.”

He stares.

“Dean?” Footsteps sound out from next to the two, and he glances to the side, surprise etched on his face. “ _Dally?_ What the hell, you scared the crap out of me!”

His older brother- _Not bigger anymore_ , a smug voice that sounds like him at thirteen years old jeers- Just gives him one of his arrogant smirks, tone practically dripping with confidence.

“That’s ‘cause you’re out of practice.”

Sam’s brow furrows, an irritated gleam in his eyes even as Dally gives an irritated huff at how easily Dean riled him up- But neither or them pay attention to that, and the taller male just grips Dean’s wrist, twisting and slamming his foot into his back to give himself some leverage as he switches their positions.

“Or not- Now get off of me,” Dean wheezes out what might’ve been a laugh if his brother wasn’t basically sitting on him, and he huffs, but moves anyways, giving him a hand up in the process.

“Yeesh, Sammy, no hello for me? Should I be feeling unloved?”

Dally had moved to lean against the windows while Sam had retaliated, but she was now beside her brothers as she spoke, tone light and teasing and her arms open as an invitation.

Sam can’t stop himself from grinning when he opens his arms, because his sister really _does_ give some of the best hugs.

The black-haired woman grins at the sight and speeds for him like a bullet, nearly pushing him over as she wraps her arms around his midsection, damn near lifting him off his feet in the process- And despite his irritation that they broke in, Sam finds himself relaxing a bit at the familiar feel of leather and flannel that Dally always wore.

He’d missed her.

Unfortunately, he has to break the happy moment, because they _had_ broken into his apartment in the middle of the night, so he pulls away and fixes them both with a stern look.

“Alright, what the hell are you two doing here?”

Dean just grins like he hadn’t done anything wrong, patting him on the shoulders as he spoke. “Well, I was looking for a beer.”

Sam glares, irritation writhing beneath his skin like a fire, because he knew that wasn’t the case- When was it ever? Dally, at least, actually looks apologetic, and even opens her mouth to explain-

“Sam?”

But is cut off before she can start as Jess wanders in and flips the lights on, tired but clearly wanting to know what was going on and who the hell he was talking to.

Which, okay, fair.

“Jess,” He says, somewhat awkwardly, “Hey.” This is not a situation he wants her to walk in on- And he especially doesn’t want Dean eyeing her up like that, though he supposes he shouldn’t have expected anything less. “Dean, Dally, this is my girlfriend- Jessica.”

Surprise lights up the blonde’s features, and she eyes the two with renewed interest. “Wait, your siblings Dean and Dally?” The former, of course, is still eyeing her up, but Dally seems almost sad- And he recalls, very suddenly, her excited talks of how she wanted to meet any girlfriends he got in the future.

He looks down a bit, shakes his head, and looked up in time for-

“I love the smurfs- You know, I got to tell you, you’re way out of-“

His brother gets cut off by a vicious elbow to the stomach from Dally, a pained wheeze leaving him at the action. Sam winces a bit at the sight- Dally is many things, after all, but physically weak has never been one of them.

Jess shoots his sister an appreciative look, though, and he does the same as his girlfriend makes to leave. “Just let me put something on-“

“No, no, I wouldn-“ And then his brother is shut up by their diminutive sister again, a stern look on her face being the only thing necessary.

Sam has the distinct feeling that Dean will be getting an earful about how, exactly, you’re meant to respect someone later on.

“You,” She says, voice annoyed, ”Behave, she isn’t interested, and even if she was, that was beyond disrespectful. I raised you to be better than that, and if you keep it up, I’ll be more than disappointed. And you,” She moves suddenly, pointing at Jessica, “Feel free to leave if you’d like, sweetie, no one would blame you, but don’t feel you _have_ to- I’m the oldest, I can sit him in the car for a timeout if I need to.”

Everyone ignores Dean’s indignant squawk of protest at that particular notion.

“Oh,” Jess starts a bit, then smiled. “Thanks, I guess.”

“No problem. And I know it’s late, but we’ve really gotta take Sammy from you for a few minutes- Private family business, we won’t be long.” Dally gives his girlfriend a small smile, and Jess’s own stretches a bit wider.

“Uh- Yeah, sure-“

“No. No, whatever you two have to say, you can say it in front of Jess.”

His siblings pause and share a look, clearly feeling awkward at that statement. Dean steps forward first, a wary look in his eyes.

“Okay… Um… Dad hasn’t been home in a few days.”

That got a scoff from his younger brother. “So he’s working overtime on a Miller Time shift, he’ll stumble his way back to you two sooner or later.”

“Sammy,” Dally tries to explain this time, eyes uncertain. “Dad’s… He’s on a hunting trip, and he hasn’t been home in a few days.”

He wonders, dazedly, if this is what a computer feels like when it crashes.

“Jess, excuse us.”

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

Dean leads the way down the stairs, his confident stride a stark contrast to Dally’s more subdued steps and Sam’s enraged pace. The youngest Winchester finds himself more than a little bit irritated at his siblings for just breaking into his apartment like that- And for them to just expect that he’d go with them after that? Were they _insane_?

He tells them he thinks as much.

“I mean, come on, you two can’t just break into my apartment in the middle of the night and really expect me to hit the road with you, can you? I mean, maybe I’d expect it from Dean, but Dally, _you?_ I’d think you’d know better!”

His sister trails her gaze to the ground, shrinking in on herself- He remembers, suddenly, that she’d never dealt well with people being angry at her, or raising their voices, especially her family, and a pang of regret passes through him for not keeping that in mind. He’s irritated, but that doesn’t mean he wants to stress her out.

Dean either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care, and instead plows on like he couldn’t at least have knocked or something.

“Sammy, you’re not hearing us! Dad’s missing, we’re asking for your help to track him down. It isn’t like I’m asking you to commit mass murder.”

Sam scowls, because _that is not his current issue with this,_ but addresses it anyways. “Yeah, do you remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or how about the Devil’s Gates in Clifton? He’s always missing and he’s always fine by the time he drags his ass back for you two to look after.”

“Not for this long Sammy, now are you gonna come with us or not?”

“I’m not.”

“Why not?”

“Because I swore I was done hunting. _For good._ ”

“C’mon, Sammy,” Dally slides into their conversation now, looking a bit less downtrodden but still clearly trying to avoid anyone’s ire. “I mean- I wouldn’t say it’s easy or anything, because it isn’t, but I don’t think it was that bad,” She looks at Dean for support, “Right?”

“Yup.”

“Yeah, well when I told Dad that I was scared of something in my closet, he gave me a .45.” He scoffs a bit at the thought, and Dally actually winces at that particular memory- He still remembers her sneaking into his bed to tuck it away somewhere else and promising to play lookout for him, even though she had school the next day, just like him.

Dean just gives him a blank look.

“Okay, and? What the hell was he supposed to do, make you a cupcake and call it a day?”

“I was nine years old, Dean! He was supposed to say _don’t be afraid of the dark_!”

“Don’t be- What the hell, Sammy, of course you should be afraid of the dark, you know what’s out there!”

“Yeah, but still- I mean, the way we grew up after Mom was killed,“ His sister makes a discomforted noise, and his brother’s jaw tightens, but he ignores that, pushing on instead, “And dad’s obsession with finding the thing that killed her- But we still haven’t found the damn thing, so we kill everything we _can_ find, instead.”

“We end up saving a lot of good people while we’re at it, Sammy.” Dally points out, eyes sad, “I know it isn’t for everyone, but you can’t ignore the fact that it helps, in some way.”

“You think Mom would’ve wanted this for us?” He regrets the words the moment they leave his mouth, because Dean stiffens, and Dally looks suspiciously like she wants to cry as she rapidly opened the metal door they’d been moving to. “I mean, the- The weapons training, the melting silver into bullets? Guys, we weren’t raised like kids, we were raised like warriors!”

“So what’re you gonna do about it, Sam? Are you just gonna live some normal, apple-pie life?”

“No. Not normal- _Safe_.”

“And that’s why you ran away- Why you ditched us.”

Dally’s eyes snaps to Dean’s face at that comment. “Dean! That’s isn’t-“ Sam doesn’t let her finish.

“Me? Dean, I was just going to college- It was Dad who said that if I was gonna go, I should stay gone. And that’s what I’ve been doing!”

“Yeah? Well Dad’s in real trouble now, if he isn’t dead already- I can feel it. I,” He hesitates. “Sammy, I’ve got Dally, but I want to do this together- All three of us. _Please_.”

“You don’t need my help, Dean.”

“Sammy, please,” His eyes snap to Dally, now, and she’s looking at him sadly. “I know you don’t wanna do this, but we miss you. Just- Just this once? Can you consider it, at least?” Her voice grows a bit more desperate at the end. “You don’t have to keep it up forever, just- Help us out with this, Sammy.”

He sighs, pursing his lips and looking at the ground as if it would give him the answers. He supposes… If it was just this once…

“What was he hunting?”

They beam at him.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

Dean pops open the trunk of his Baby, further opening the bottom of the trunk to reveal a small portable armory. Sam had seen it plenty of times in his childhood, of course, but his father and brother were both notorious for driving his sister _insane_ with how messy they were. Which meant-

“So, did Dally have to hound you to organize it this well or did she do it herself?” Sam smirks a bit when his sister laughs at his comment, and Dean shoots him a sour look. “She did it, then? Man, some things never change.”

“You shut your stupid sasquatchian mouth, you hear? You weren’t any better until she converted you after that cheese rifle incident.”

The younger goes a bit grey at the thought of that particular event- He never could look at food sculptures the same way again. Or sniper rifles. “We swore to never speak of that again.” His voice comes out as an irritated his, and Dean snickers.

“ _You_ said that- I said no such thing… Now where the hell did I put those papers?”

Sam hums a bit, but doesn’t see any papers among the weapons. “So,” He starts, “Dean. When Dad left, why didn’t you go with him?”

“Hm? Ah, there was this voodoo thing down in New Orleans-“

“Wait, Dad let you go on a hunting trip _by yourself?_ ” Sam gives his brother a look of disbelief- Their father never let his two youngest go off on their own.

His brother just pauses in his task and stands up fully. “Dude,” He gestures to himself, “I’m 26. And why the hell aren’t you asking Dally that, huh? _She_ was working a witch case.”

Sam just levels Dean with a flat look. “Because she’s 30 and was able to hunt on her own for a year before I left.” His brother gives him a betrayed look, and he shrugs. “Look, I’m sorry, but do you wanna get on her bad side when she has a knife in one hand and a pair of brass knuckles in the other?” Dean huffs and busies himself with looking through the trunk again. “ _That’s_ what I thought.”

“Dean?” Dally pops her head out of the back seat, an amused look on her face- Though whether it was from what her brothers said or something else, he wasn’t certain.

“What? Can’t you people let me look for the damn thing in peace?”

“Well, given that you’re looking in the wrong place… No. No, I can’t.” She steps out of the car fully, a black folder with something Sam couldn’t quite make out scrawled across the front in what looked like red sharpie. Dean’s head snaps up at her words.

“The hell was this thing?”

“In the back. You know, where I keep _all of our case files_?” She looks a bit entertained by how utterly befuddled her younger brother is, and Sam has to bite back a giggle.

“You,” He says, “Shut up, and give me those.” Dally smirks at him, but hands the papers over.

“So Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop around Jericho, California- ‘Bout a month ago, this guy,” He hands a paper to Sam, “Vanished. Went completely MIA, and Dally’s computer witchery didn’t reveal anything we could find outside of a pattern.” Papers are placed down one at a time as he continues. “This is one from April, and this is from December ’04, ’03, ’98, ’92… Bit much for a kidnapping, don’t you think?”

“Especially,” His sister points out, “When they’re all men and all along the same stretch of road. Dad went to investigate about a month ago, give or take a few days, and we haven’t heard a peep from him ever since, which is bad enough, given this thing’s MO.”

“So imagine our worry,” Dean picks up, “When I got this voicemail yesterday from out of nowhere.”

[… _Dean, something is starting to happen_ … _I think it’s serious. I need to try to figure out what’s going on… Be very careful Dean, you and Magdalene need to take care of each other. We’re all in danger_ …]

And that was it. He blinks.

“You know there’s EVP on that thing, right?”

“Not bad, Sammy- Bit like riding a bike, huh? Anyways, Dally decided to slow it down, run it through GoldWave, and take out the hiss- This is what we got.”

[… **I can never go home** …]

“Never go home?” He mumbles. The hell was that?

Dean gets up slowly, closing the trunk and shifting a bit as he starts to speak. “You know… In the four years you’ve been gone, Dally and I- We haven’t done a damn thing to interfere with your life. At most, she kept tabs on you to make sure you weren’t getting your ass killed. But that’s it.”

Sam shifts a bit, uncertain.

Dean _did_ have a point.

And it was just the one hunt, right? And hell, maybe- Maybe it would help him patch up his relationship with his siblings. Because as annoyed as he was, he missed them- Missed Dally’s hugs and quiet support, missed Dean’s teasing and threats of violence to anyone who hurt his family.

He sighs.

“Okay,” Dally’s head snaps up, a hopeful look in her eyes. “Okay, I’ll go with the two of you. But… I have to be back, first thing Monday- Jess’ll have my head if I’m gone for too long with no warning.”

There were two reactions to this- Dean’s was surprised.

“Why? What’s going on first thing Monday?”

“It’s a-“

“Law school interview, and it’s his whole future on a plate,” The brothers turn as one, surprised. “But- Sam- Sammy, are you really not gonna tell Jess what you’re doing? Or at least where you’re going?”

He blinks, a surprised noise escaping him. “I mean… It isn’t forever, and I don’t want to worry her.”

Dally shifts, suddenly seeming far more uncomfortable before she starts to speak again.

“Look, it’s just- I’m not telling you how to live your life, Sammy, I’m _not_. But this- Is keeping this from her really fair? I mean, if nothing else, she deserves a heads up if something comes up, doesn’t she? And hell, she seems pretty smart besides, and something tells me that she’ll learn sooner or later.” Dally swallows, fiddling with the zipper on her jacket. “And Sammy… I don’t think it’ll end well if it doesn’t come from you.”

“I don’t-” Sam sucks in a breath and reminds himself that Dally is genuinely just worried for him- It only takes one look to know that she isn’t trying to antagonize him. “Look, I get what you’re saying- And I appreciate it! I really, really do- But this is just… Something I don’t feel comfortable sharing. I’m sorry.”

“Dally kinda has a point, Sammy,” Dean interjects. “I mean, keeping secrets ain’t exactly the healthiest thing in the world.”

All three of them ignore the irony in that statement.

“Okay, look, _you guys_ are the ones who tracked me down to help you find Dad, and honestly? I don’t think this is the time or place for this. I’m gonna pack my stuff, I’m gonna say goodbye to Jess, and we’re leaving. End of story.”

His siblings stare at him, but Dally is the one to break first, a sad look in her eyes. “Alright, Sammy- Alright. I’m sorry for pushing, you just- You seem happy, and I don’t want you to end up hurt because of this, is all.” She hesitated. “Can you… At least consider it, on this trip? You don’t have to, but-“

“I think I can do that.” He’s already relaxing from his sister’s acceptance of his terms. “And I’ll… Think about it, I guess. Never hurts.”

They half expect to hear Dean snark something back at Sam, but when they don’t, they find themselves turning around-

Only to find no Dean.

As one, they look at the swinging metal door that lead back into the building they had just left

The door that lead back to Jessica.

No one says anything for a moment.

Then-

“ _DEAN! GET BACK HERE!_ ”

Sam sprints inside, seeming to not care about making too much noise in his effort to stop their brother, and Dally has to take a moment to bury her face in her hands before she follows him, dread coiling tight as a noose in her stomach. She doubts she’ll get there in time to stop Dean, but… Maybe she could do damage control?

Dally sighs.

“ _Morons._ ”

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

By the time Dally manages to reach Sam’s apartment, the yelling is audible all the way from the end of the hall- She sincerely hopes that his neighbors were managing to sleep through that, because if they weren’t, they’d be getting a lot of noise complaints in the morning.

She hesitates in front of the door. Sam, she knew, would be undoubtedly pissed off about what Dean had done, and Dean, in turn, would be furious at him for keeping secrets from a member of the family (And Jessica _was_ , undoubtedly, a Winchester now- They’d seen how Sam looked at her, and how she’d looked at him). Both mean well, she knows, and both have good points.

A lose-lose situation.

Her gut tells her that Jessica is coming along either way, though- And Sam really wasn’t going to be happy about that.

_Damage control time_.

Opening the door ends up revealing what she expected- Sam and Dean are at each other’s throats, and, if what Sam was saying is any indication, Dean had told Jessica what they did. Jessica, meanwhile, is leaning against the wall in a confused daze, like she isn’t sure if she should be horrified by everything Dean had told her or concerned that Sam’s entire family could be dangerous, mentally unstable felons.

She decides to take care of Jessica first- If anyone asked, it she’d say it was because Sam and Dean had argued before, and she at least knew they wouldn’t kill each other over this. Privately?... She was a bit scared that they would turn on her if she got in the middle of things.

“At least they haven’t killed each other yet, right?” Jessica jumps when she sees that Dally has placed herself at the blonde’s side, clearly not expecting the older woman to still be there- Or perhaps she’d assumed she’d get involved in her brothers’ fight? “So, given how pissed Sammy looks… What did Dean tell you- Jessica, right? Can I call you that?”

“You- You can just call me Jess. Everyone does… Um. Do they do this often?”

“Unfortunately. But you didn’t answer my question- What did Dean say? And don’t say nothing- You look too shaken for that.”

“He- Uh-“ Jess stumbles a bit over her words, “He said… God, it sounds crazy, but you guys hunt monsters- That Sam did, too. But that doesn’t even- They don’t exist! Is- Is he alright? In the-“

“Head? Dean’s fine, maybe a bit aggressive and clingy with his family, but we’re all we’ve ever really had, so that isn’t a surprise. And as for the monsters,” Dally sighs, “Yes, they exist, and yes, we hunt them. Sammy did, too, once upon a time. Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true. I’m just sorry you had to find out from us and not him.”

Jess stares at her, and it’s all Dally can do to give the poor thing a sympathetic look.

“Okay. Okay, say- Say I do believe you. Say monsters exist- Why didn’t Sam tell me? I mean, he- He tells me _everything_! He wouldn’t lie about something as important as this! I mean, this- Fuck, this even explains a lot of the stuff he can do, kind of, you know? I mean, he- He can pick locks, he did it when I accidentally locked us out, he can fight, he can shoot a gun, he can-“

“Jess? You’ve gotta breathe, sweetheart. I know it’s a lot, but you’ll do no good passed out.”

And Dally understands where Jess is coming from- Something like this is _huge_ , and _scary_ , and it can ruin everything you thought you knew.

“This- This can’t be real,” Her voice is small and uncertain, “It can’t be.”

“I’m sorry.”

She wavers for a moment, breathing deeply and trying to think of something to say. She eyes Sam and Dean, first- Both furious, both loud, both _clearly_ in the know about something that she wasn’t. Or hadn’t been.

Jess knows, terrifyingly, that her reality really has come crashing down around her. It _hurts_.

“When- When you asked to talk to Sam, did it… Have to do with- Uh- With-“

“Hunting? Yes.” The black-haired woman hesitates. “We… Wanted his help. Our father went on a hunt up by Jericho, and we haven’t heard much from him outside of a voicemail with EVP. And… We missed Sammy. We just wanted to spend some time with him.”

“EVP?”

“Electronic voice phenomena. And if it means anything… We weren’t gonna take him away forever. Just two or three days, give or take.”

Jess swallows and thinks a bit about that.

Hunting. Her boyfriend- Someone she trusts above all else- Had once hunted monsters, and… If it was true, he hadn’t told her- And she’d be lying if she said that didn’t hurt. Doesn’t he trust her?

She looks at his older sister again, a decision made in her mind.

“What you guys do- Hunting- It’s… Dangerous, right? Risky?”

“Very much so, yes. Why?” Dally blinks up at her, still calm but also seeming a bit confused- And she notices, out of the corner of her eye, that Sam has turned to her at some point, the argument with his brother dying out.

Jess takes a breath, holds it- _One, two, three_ \- And prepares herself for what she was about to say.

Sam was going to be _furious_.

“I want to go on the hunt you mentioned.”

Silence. Complete, unbroken silence.

And then-

“ _What?!?_ ”

Huh. Looks like that thing about siblings speaking in unison is true.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

“Jess, I love you, but are you _crazy?_ I mean, you just found out about all of this- Which you shouldn’t have in the first place,“ Sam voice is furious as he speaks, but there’s a tinge of terror to it, as well, “I don’t even- Why would you want to go on a hunt? I left that life for a reason, it sucks you dry and gives you nothing in return.”

And while their reactions weren’t as bad, Dean and Dally still seem shocked at her words- Dean practically reeks of discomfort, and Dally just has an worried look in her eyes. And that _grates_ on her, because the woman may be older than her, but Jess isn’t a fucking _baby_ , thank-you-very-much, she can handle herself.

“Don’t- Don’t give me those looks, okay? I know I have no idea what that would even involve, and I know it’s dangerous, but I- I want to help, okay? I want to learn more about Sam, about this part of himself he’s never mentioned to me. Is- Is that really so bad?”

The Winchesters all look at each other, a silent conversation happening as they do so.

Sam talks first.

“Listen, Jess, I love you to bits, but this? This is dangerous- You could die, and I can’t let that happen,“ She goes to give him a look, but Sam beats her too it. “But I’ve known you for a while now- Well enough to know that, even if I say no, you’ll stow away in the trunk. God knows you’ve done it before. So-“

“So you can come. But there are conditions, you hear me?” Dean picks up after his younger brother, clearly not happy but also not entirely displeased, which is odd.

“Uh- Sure thing. Fire away.”

“You do what we tell you,” Dally starts, “Without question. Because we know more about this than you do, we grew up with this. If shit is going down and we tell you to run, _you run_. I don’t care what’s happening, you get the hell out of dodge and you stay gone- Fuck, stay witness protection gone, if you need to.”

“And,” Sam continues, “You have to stick with one of us at all times. You can’t wonder off on your own, because if you get caught, we might not know what happened to you.”

The three of them give her a look and speak in unison.

“ _Got it?_ ”

Jess frowns, then sighs, nodding.

“I got it.”

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

“So,” Jess starts, wanting to talk but also not sure what to say. Because what were you supposed to say after a reveal like that? “You and your family.”

“Yeah,” Sam responds weakly, “We- Uh- Well, I did say there were. Issues.”

There’s silence for a while, broken only by Sam’s interjections in an attempt to help her pack. Neither of them know what to say here, because neither of them are really sure there’s anything to say in the first place. They know Dean and Dally are by the car- “ _Dean calls it Baby,” Sam warns, “And he loves it, so don’t get it dirty or anything._ ”- But it doesn’t really make things easier.

Both feel a bit betrayed, to be honest, though by different people.

It’s Jess who breaks first.

“Look,” She starts, voice hoarse. She pauses to clear her throat, starting again. “Look, I know neither of us are happy about this. I’m definitely not, because I would’ve liked to hear about this from you, but that can’t be helped now.” She looks up at him, eyes sad. “I don’t hate you, you know. I’m a bit upset that you didn’t trust me, but-“

“Woah, woah, wait a second- It isn’t that I don’t trust you, okay? I just-“

“But it is, isn’t it?” She pushes. “Because you not telling me despite you wanting out permanently means that you didn’t trust me to respect your boundaries or your reasoning. And I get it, okay? I really, really do- I can’t understand what you went through because we grew up in completely different worlds. And that’s okay! But now you have to respect that it might take a little bit for me to trust you not to keep secrets, okay? I love you, you just… You have to give me time.”

And Sam has that kicked puppy look on his face- The one she’s come to both love and hate over time- But he nods anyways, and that’s something she’s always appreciated. Sam isn’t perfect, yes, but at the very least he tries to respect her decisions and wants.

“Okay,” His voice is still sad, though. “I get it. And I- I’m sorry. I know I should’ve told you, but-“

“Shut it. I told you, didn’t I? I understand. We’ll make it through this- Easy as the LSAT, you’ll see.” She smiles at him, and he grins back, relaxing a bit.

“Easy as the LSAT.”

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

**_November 1, 2005_ **

**_Jericho, California_ **

“Amy, I can’t come over tonight.”

A lone car speeds down the road, the sky dark in the early morning as the speaker splits his attention between his drive and his phone conversation. The response from the person on the other end prompts a “ _Because I got work in the morning, that’s why_ ” from him, easy-going and unconcerned.

“Okay, I miss it, my dad’s gonna have my ass… Hey, uh, Amy, let me call you back.”

He shuts the phone before he receives a reply, looking at what had caught his attention- That being a dark-haired woman, dressed entirely in white and standing by the side of the road, not a care in the world. He doesn’t notice how she seems to flicker out of existence for a moment at he pulls to a stop beside her.

“Car trouble or something?”

She doesn’t respond for a moment, only turning a bit to stare at him, gaze almost empty. Then-

“ _Take me home?_ ”

“Sure, get in.” As if to support his statement, he leaned over to the passenger door and pushed it open as he spoke. She slid in easily, sighing as she lays against the seat and turning to stare at her new driver.

He doesn’t notice that the car door shut completely on its own.

“So,” He starts, a bit awkward, “You coming from a Halloween party or something?” His gaze slides down to her exposed chest and he licks his lips, a nervous laugh catching at the back of his throat. “You know, a girl like you really shouldn’t be alone out here.”

The woman turns to look at him, slow and unrushed as she slides the skirt of her dress up her thighs, earning another glance from her driver.

“ _I’m with you._ ”

He looks away at that statement, a bit flustered, and so he misses her arm flickering out of existence as she places her hand under his chin and urges him to look at her again. A breathless noise leaves his throat, and his gaze pans up and down her body.

“ _Will you come home with me?_ ”

“Um,” He hesitates only for a moment before being won over. “Hell yeah.” The tires of his car squeal as he takes off.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

The house she directed him to was hardly what he had been expecting. He thought she would live somewhere small, maybe an apartment or a condo, but something like this? Rundown and in disrepair?

“Come on, you don’t live here.”

His passenger doesn’t give him a response, simply gazing at the abandoned building with grief and longing and so much _regret_ that it might’ve been physically painful.

“ _I can never go home._ ”

“What? What are you talking about?” Is this a joke? A prank? He turns back to the house, looking more closely, but nothing about it seems lived in- Not for a long time, anyways. “Nobody even lives here. Huh… Where do you live?”

But the woman isn’t there when he turns around, expecting an answer.

A chill flows down his spine like ice water- _He hadn’t heard the door open, so how had she gotten out?_ Nervous, he opens his own door and walks to the house, speaking as he went.

“That was good,” His voice is far more unsettled than before. “Joke’s over, okay?”

He receives no response, and he doesn’t see any sign of the strange woman he’d driven to such a dilapidated area.

The silence, the darkness, and the sheer _wrongness_ of the situation had his instincts screaming at him to get out of there before something went wrong- And quickly.

He ignores that for a moment though, walking to the gapping hole which served as a door.

“Hello?” Still no response, and no sign of his disappeared passenger- But he can’t bring himself to care, because in the next moment, something is flying at his face. He doesn’t know what, but he screams anyways, terror pumping through his veins as he falls back and runs to his car, frantic as he drives off, breathing heavy.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t notice that the woman had appeared in his back seat before it was too late.

The car skids to a stop on a bridge, fog rolling in- And no one is around to watch as the car shakes with the man’s screams and a figure moves oddly in the clouded windows.

Blood splatters sickeningly on the clear surfaces, and all goes silent

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

At least five or six hours had passed since Sam and Jess had be recruited (Unintentionally, in the latter’s case) in finding John Winchester. The sky is much brighter now, everyone a bit more awake, and tempers had long since cooled, replaced instead by Dean’s rock music collection and the quiet conversation between Jess and Dally in the back seat on the basics of hunting.

Currently, the quartet is stopped at a small gas station just outside of Jericho, Dean in the store fetching… Something- _“Probably booze or junk food,” Dally had said fondly_ \- While Sam focuses on refilling the gas tank and Dally continued her impromptu lesson plan.

“Salt repels spirits, usually, and as long as there’s no wind, you should be fine if you put it in a circle in an emergency-“

“Okay, but why? It’s salt, that doesn’t-“

“I’m not too well versed on the specifics, that’s more Sammy’s thing, but it has something to do with salt purifying or repelling corruption. You can probably ask him for a more in-depth explanation later- He may have left hunting, but he’s always enjoyed sharing what he knows.”

The two are interrupted by Dean walking away from the small store with a collection of food and drink in his arms, asking if anyone wanted breakfast. Dally immediately steals a thing of salt and vinegar potato chips and a bottle of Dr. Pepper from his arms, hands eager for her normal favorites, and Jess guiltily snags two chocolate bars and a bottle of water. Sam takes one look and scoffs before denying his offer.

“You’re as into the healthy stuff as ever, then?” His older sister asks, a teasing lilt to her tone. He shoots her a playful grin from the front seat, then turns to Dean.

“So,” He starts, “How’d you pay for that stuff? Are you three still running credit card scams?”

“Yeah, well, hunting ain’t exactly a pro-ball career, Sammy. Besides, it isn’t our fault they send us the cards.”

Jess gives the three a silent look that’s a mixture of concerned and judgmental, half tempted to ask what they meant but ultimately deciding to not think about it. In the grand scheme of things, she supposed it wasn’t that bad.

“Okay, and what names did you write on the application this time?”

“Uh, Bert Aframian, and his kids, Hector and Kathy. Scored three cards out of the deal,” Dean’s tone is smug, and Jess snorts a bit at their choice in names- Sam just huffs and forever denies his amused smile.

“Sounds about right,” Trailing off, he switches topics. “Dean, I swear to god, you have _got_ to update your cassette-tape collection.”

Dean gives his younger brother a confused look, an offended “ _Why?_ ” slipping out.

“Well for one, they’re cassette-tapes, and two-“ Here, he begins removing tapes, as if to prove his point. “Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Metallica?” The last one is snatched out of his hands. “Dean, these are the greatest hits of mullet rock!”

“Well, house rules, Sammy- Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole.” At the giggles from the backseat, he amended his statement. “That holds true for the peanut gallery, too.”

“You know, Sammy is a chubby twelve-year-old. It’s Sam, okay?”

Dean just turns up the music, grinning wildly as he steers his car out of the pitstop.

“Sorry, I can’t hear you, the music’s too loud!”

And then they take off again.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

“Alright,” Sam starts, flipping his phone shut. “So there’s no one matching Dad at the hospital or morgue- That’s something, I guess.”

His siblings noticeably relax at his words, and Jess seems a bit worried by the fact that they’d had to check in the first place- She opens her mouth to ask if they really thought he’d be there, but is cut off by Dean’s voice.

“Check it out.”

His attention had been drawn to the sight of police cars by the bridge that would lead into Jericho- And, if their research was correct, said bridge just so happened to be part of that five mile stretch of road their case had been taking place on. He pulls to a stop nearby, all four members of their group staring for a moment before Dean reaches over Sam’s lap to pull a small brown box out of the glove compartment.

A box which Jess quickly discovers contained a startling number of fake IDs.

She stares, opens her mouth to ask _what the hell_ , then closes it and decides that she doesn’t want to know. Instead, Dally speaks up.

“Leaving the two of us in the back may be the best option here, given that we don’t have an ID for Jess. We’re the smallest, so I could probably sit on the floor, and Jess could lay down in the back seat if she’d be more comfortable like that.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? What if someone sees us? Or what if they get caught, and one of us needs to be in the front to drive away- Actually, would driving away at all be safe? I just really-“

“Jess,” Her boyfriend says, voice gentle. “ _Calm down_. It’s gonna be fine- All three of us know how to do this, and Dally won’t let anything happen to you. We aren’t gonna get caught, and neither are you.”

“Now that this is settled… Let’s get our asses moving, Gigantor. We got work to do!” And with that, he leaves the car, Sam following behind him- Dally, meanwhile, slides off of the seat, and, when Jess doesn’t move, reaches up, latches onto her shoulder, and drags her into laying down.

“They’re going to be fine. Like Sam said, we’ve all done this before.”

“Well yeah, but I don’t- Why do you guys have to do this? Couldn’t you get in trouble?”

“We could,” The older woman says, voice careful, “But we could also save lives- Even theirs,” Jess opens her mouth to ask a question, but Dally keeps going. “They don’t know what to do in situations like this. It’s dangerous, and because they think they’re doing their job when they’re really doing ours, they could get hurt, and that means we have to do some less than legal things.”

She still doesn’t look convinced, but she also doesn’t argue- She simply stares at the roof of the car, contemplation in her eyes.

“Tell you what- How about I tell you about the tomato knife incident?” At the blonde’s look of confusion, Dally grins, clearly feeling mischievous. “I’ve missed out on telling you way too many embarrassing Sam stories- I’ve gotta make up for that somehow, don’t I?”

Jess shifts slowly, intrigued.

“Do tell.”

The smirk on the older woman’s face is all too telling.

(The tomato knife incident, as it turns out, involved at least ten skunks, Sam’s hair, their father catching on fire, the Impala, one of Dean’s guns, Dally’s knife collection, far too much tomato juice to be healthy, and the very angry ghost of an old man.

Really, Dally _still_ isn’t sure how that old man gained control over skunks, specifically. Or why.)

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

Sam and Dean, meanwhile, had begun to walk towards the crime scene, the former unaware of his impending doom via humiliation and childhood stories. Perhaps, if he had known, he would not have gone, but he did not, and so he did.

As they walk up, the two notice a pair of officers wading out of the water as another, on the bridge where the disappearance took place, questions them on their findings- It was nothing, of course, as both of the brothers had suspected the answer would be. Normal, non-involved officials rarely found anything deemed worthwhile in the mundane sense, after all.

Didn’t mean a couple of hunters wouldn’t.

The closer they get, the more they can hear- And it seems they’d arrived in the middle of the discussion.

“- sign of a struggle, no footprints, no fingerprints- Spotless. It’s almost too clean.”

About as the two had expected, then- Hopefully they’ll find more in their own, more private investigation later on. Dally, they both knew, had been as raised in this as they were, and Sam privately thought his girlfriend’s forensic background might be able to help, even if he wished she didn’t have to see a hunt.

“- dating your daughter, isn’t he? How’s Amy doing?”

It might have been awhile since he’s been in the field, but Sam isn’t stupid- He makes a mental note to tell his sister about how their newest missing person had been dating someone. It never hurts to be thorough, after all- And a quick glance at Dean confirms that he thought the same. If it means something, Dally can figure it out.

“- missing posters downtown.”

“You had another one like this last month, didn’t you?” Dean is the first to break their observational silence, because of course he was- The officer in charge of the current events pushes himself off of the car in response, walking over to intercept them.

“And who are you?”

“Federal marshals.” Dean flips open his badge briefly- Enough to give the man (Admittedly false) proof, but not long enough for him to try and look for any discrepancies. Unfortunately, this doesn’t prevent the incredulous look he got from the older male.

“You two are a little young for marshals, aren’t you?”

“Thanks,” Dean forces out a laugh, slipping away to look at the bloodied car more closely, “That’s awfully kind of you. But you did have another one just like this, correct?”

“Yeah, that’s right- About a mile up the road. There have been others before that.”

“So this victim,” Sam starts, taking over for his brother as the elder circles the car, “You knew him?”

“Town like this? Everybody knows everybody.”

“Any connections between the victims?” Dean inquires briefly, attention clearly split between the crime scene and the conversation. “Besides that they’re all men?”

“No. Not so far as we can tell.”

“So what’s the theory?”

“Honestly? We don’t know- Serial murderer? Kidnapping ring?”

“Well that is exactly the kind of crack police work I’d expect out of you guys-“ Dean’s statement is cut off as Sam, unseen, stomps on his foot, clearly less than pleased with his brother’s attitude.

The officer stares.

“Thank you for your time, gentlemen.”

As the two walk off, Dean glances behind them- And, seeing that no one is looking, takes the opportunity to smack Sam around the back of the head, clearly agitated.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“Why did you have to step on my foot?”

“Why do you have to talk to the police like that?”

“Come on!” Dean circles around to stand in front of his brother. “They don’t really know what’s going on. We’re all alone on this- I mean, if we’re gonna find Dad, we’ve gotta get to the bottom of this thing ourselves.” He doesn’t seem to have Sam’s attention, though- Instead, the man clears his throat, and Dean turns around.

“Can I help you boys?”

Actual federal marshals.

_Fuuuck._

“No sir, we were just leaving,” As they begin to walk away, Dean addresses the two actual agents. “Agent Mulder, Agent Scully.”

They don’t notice the man who had originally addressed them turn around and watch them walk back to their car, eyes suspicious as his hand hovers over a special phone in his pocket. They don’t notice how he sees their companions sit up in the back seat.

But the man keeps his eyes on them regardless, and watches as they drive away before he takes out a small notebook and write something down.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

The drive into Jericho is spent quietly, the background noise mostly made up of Dean’s music choice and Sam sharing what they’d learned with their female companions. They end up pulling over at a movie theatre, however, when Jess notices a teenage girl putting up posters.

“I’ll bet you that’s her.” Dean turns around, looking at Jess as he speaks. “Nice eyes, by the way.”

“Oh. Um, yeah, no problem.”

The four step out of the car, everyone pausing for a moment before making a beeline to their target.

“You must be Amy,” Dean starts, continuing after receiving a subdued affirmation from the girl. “Troy told us about you- We’re family. I’m Dean, that’s Sammy, and that’s our sister- Uncles and aunt, at your service,” Amy gives him a suspicious look, eyes flickering between all four people interrogating her. “She’s adopted. And Jess here is this giant’s wife.”

The couple flushes at that, and Dally steps in with a _you know they’re still kinda embarrassed about that, Dean,_ and the teenager smiles a bit, relaxing.

“Well I’m happy for you two,” She gestures to Sam and Jess, “But Troy never mentioned you guys to me.”

“That’s more on us,” Dally says, her words practically dripping with apology. “We’re not around much, since we live around Modesto, and even then, we aren’t all that social- We only started talking to people when those two got married.”

“So,” Sam cuts her off, getting a small huff from his sister, “We’re looking for him too, and asking around- Can’t say we expected to run into you while we were doing it, though.”

The conversation is cut off when another girl, about Amy’s age, steps in, eyeing the four warily as she speaks to her friend. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you mind if we ask you a couple questions?”

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

“I was on the phone with Troy.”

The (Honorary, in one case) Winchester four followed the girls to an out of the way diner to talk- It’s a quiet place, but they could only assume the two feel more comfortable there than they do, given how they lived here.

“He was driving home. He said he would call me back, but… He never did.”

Sam and Dean had moved away from the girls at their sister’s insistence- She’d said that making the already stressed out teenager feel trapped by four other people, two of which were _huge_ , would do nobody any good, and had promptly told them to order lunch while they waited. While they did that, she and Jess would tackle their targets.

“While this was happening,” Dally starts, voice soft, “Did Troy happen to say anything odd, or out of place? Anything that could tell us who took him?”

“No,” Amy shakes her head and stares off to the side for a moment, thinking. “Nothing I can remember.”

“It’s fine,” Jess soothes, “We know this must be hard for you to deal with, and we really do appreciate you talking to us about it. It means a lot.”

“The way he disappeared is what’s bothering me. Something is just… _Wrong_ about it, it isn’t natural.”

The younger two share a hesitant look- Something Jess latches onto immediately.

“What is it?” She leaned forward, voice quiet.

“It’s just- Well, with all of these guys going missing, people talk.”

“What are they talking about?” Dally speaks up this time, voice just as quiet as Jess’s was- The blonde wonders, briefly, if she had to do this before, with other people, or even her own younger brothers.

She shakes that off.

_Focus, Jess. You’re working on a degree for stuff like this_.

She tunes back into the conversation in time to see Amy’s friend- They still hadn’t gotten her name- Fiddling with her hands, uncertain even as she continues.

“It’s- It’s kind of this local legend,” She begins, “This one girl… She got murdered out by Centennial a while back- Decades ago, really. And according to some people, she’s still out there- She hitchhikes, and once someone lets her into their car, they disappear. _Forever_.”

Dally looks at her quietly, and Jess has a feeling that they’d found something- A lead.

And despite the circumstances, and the lying, she finds herself feeling a bit proud to have helped out, if only a little bit.

_Jackpot._

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

“So,” Dally starts as she and Jess slide into a booth on the other side of the diner, “We may have found something.”

“Oh?”

“Mhm,” She continues, “So as it turns out, there may have been a murder on Centennial a while back- Local legend and all that, but it’s the best we’ve got. By the way, did you two order yet?”

“We’ll have to stop by the library, then… Hopefully it’ll be open.”

“Later, though. Right now, food is in our future,” There’s a grin in Dean’s voice as he speaks, eyeing the waitress that had been making a beeline for their table, lunch in tow. “We got you two something, too, don’t worry.”

“Did you get-”

“Dally, I’ve known you since I was born, of course I’m gonna get you your damned fried chicken. I don’t have a death wish.”

“Good.”

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

As it turns out, the library is the best place to go when you want to hit up the local death records- That it had the most readily available internet access doesn’t hurt, either. Or at least, that’s what Jess assumes from the way the others had immediately taken off after they’d eaten.

( _As it turned out, Jericho had some damn good hotdogs. Yum._ )

The quartet had gathered together in an isolated corner of the library, with Dean deciding to man the computer when he reached it first. Dally had seemed a bit put out, but hadn’t argued, instead watching her brother type in search after search with no luck.

It wasn’t exactly going well- And it also makes Jess a little bit concerned, because _why the hell do these three know so many synonyms for murder?!?_

“This isn’t working,” Dally mumbles under her breath. She doesn’t try and interrupt, though- Instead, Sam attempts to intervene, his brother smacking his hand away with an irritated _I got it_ , dragging a groan of annoyance from the tallest member of their group- And a shove.

“Dude!” He hisses, “You’re such a control freak.”

“So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?” Sam ignores him, and Jess wonders if he was asking that question for her benefit. “So maybe it wasn’t a murder.”

“Suicide?” The blonde supposes it was a violent enough death.

“Mhm.”

After waiting a few moments, Sam’s intervention is rewarded- A single search result, but it’s better than what Dean had been getting.

“This was 1981,” He starts out quietly, “Constance Welch, 24 years old- Jumps off Sylvania bridge, drowns in the river.”

“Does it say why she did it?”

“Yeah,” Sam trails off.

“Sammy? What’s up?” Dally moves to read over her brother’s shoulder and sucks in a breath between her teeth.

“An hour before they found her, she called 911. Her two little kids were in the bathtub, and she leaves them alone for a minute- When she comes back, they aren’t breathing. Both die.”

The black-haired woman’s face falls, something about that clearly striking a cord in her, but she refuses to meet Jess’s eyes, and her brothers either don’t notice or don’t want to confront her, so the blonde leaves it alone- For now.

Instead she focuses on her own thoughts, because something about that sounds almost familiar- But why?

“‘ _Our babies were gone and Constance just couldn’t bare it_ ’ said husband Joseph Welch.”

“That bridge look familiar to you?”

Sam takes another look at the bridge in the article at his older brother’s words, humming a bit.

“Huh,” His girlfriend murmurs, “Isn’t that-“

“The same bridge the crime scene was at,” Sam confirms.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

“So this is where Constance took the swan dive?” Dean looks down at the water below, and the rest of their little group does the same- And Jess can’t help but think that it would definitely be possible for someone to die if they jumped from here, morbid as the thought is. The height, the speed of the water, and even the rocks would’ve made it a perfect location.

She shivers and looks away.

“If the article was correct,” Dally answers, “Then yeah, it should be. Poor thing.”

“Do you two really think Dad would’ve been here?”

“Well, he’s chasing the same story,” Dean replies, moving to walk away from the edge, “And we’re chasing him.”

“Okay, so now what?” Sam goes to follow him, and, after a moment, Dally and his girlfriend do the same, though they linger behind a bit farther- The look on the eldest’s face is uncomfortable, and Jess wonders if _she_ could feel the barely-at-rest tension in the air, too.

“Now we keep digging ‘til we find him- It might take a while.”

The blonde frowns at that, and she notices Dally slump, almost unnoticeably, out of the corner of her eyes- Like she was preparing to weather a storm she’d known was coming, and couldn’t avoid.

“He told you,” Jess speaks up for the first time on the bridge, “He’s gotta get back by-“

“Monday. _Right_. The interview.”

“Yeah,” And is it just Jess, or was Sam tense, like he expects Dean to lash out?

“Yeah, I forgot.” Oh, she _highly_ doubts that- And she finds herself liking Dean less and less, with his attitude. “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you? You think you’re gonna become some lawyer, marry your girl?”

“Dean,” Dally interjects, hesitant but clearly trying to derail… Whatever was going on in front of them, but all it took to shut her down was a _shut up, Dally._

Jess scowls at that- And she feels a bit like her blood is boiling, and she can hear her heart pounding pounding in her ears.

She never did like it when people tried to make her out as anything other than herself.

“Maybe. Why not?”

Dally had actually put herself behind Jess at this point- The blonde is beginning to think that the older woman doesn’t deal well with arguments, or maybe tension, because that’s what this is gearing up to be. Or maybe she just feels like intervening will make things worse.

“Come on, Sam- She didn’t even know about this until _yesterday_. You seriously think that’s okay? That it’s healthy?”

“Why don’t you back off? Yeah, I would’ve appreciated knowing, but it’s Sam’s life to live, not yours- You have no right trying to judge whether or not it’s healthy. Hell, you aren’t even involved in our relationship, so maybe you should just let _us_ handle it.”

“You can pretend all you want, Sammy,” He starts again- Completely ignoring Jess in the meantime. “But sooner or later you’re gonna have to face up to who you really are.”

And then he turns to walk away, like that was the end of the matter.

“Oh, and who’s that?” Sam apparently doesn’t think so, though, and Jess feels a flair of pride for him.

“One of us!”

“No, I’m not like you- This is _not_ going to be my life.”

“Well, you have a responsibility-“

“To Dad?” Sam’s voice is disbelieving. “And his _crusade_ ? Dean, if it weren’t for pictures, I wouldn’t even know what mom _looks like_ . And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom’s _gone_. And I’m sorry, but she isn’t coming back.”

This is, apparently, the wrong thing to say, because Dean lashes out immediately, shoving Sam up against the edge of the bridge, fury in his eyes.

“ _Don’t talk about her like that._ ”

And then he drops Sam and takes a step back like there isn’t anything wrong with what he just did.

And that is _enough_ for Jess.

She storms up behind the- The _asshole_ , leaving Dally behind to check on Sam as she does so. Fury is pumping red-hot through her veins, and she wonders, blindingly, if this is what Sam had to live with for most of his life.

Jess reaches up to Dean, grabs his shoulder, and reels her fist back as he goes to turn around.

Pain spreads up her fingers and into her arm soon after as her fist connects with his cheek, and the surprised look on his face gave her a grim sort of satisfaction. The streak of blood from a ring she’d had on to fiddle with just made things better.

_Hope it scars, you fucker._

“What the _hell_ ?!?!?” The other two members of their group turned their attention to the little debacle, neither of them seeming to have any real idea about what they should do. “Jesus Christ, Sam, _control your fucking girlfriend_!”

Said male bristles at that, and even Dally got a disapproving look on her face at his choice of words, but Jess does. Not. _Care_. Right now.

If Dean Fucking Winchester wanted to go, then he could go with _her_.

“First of all,” She starts, voice at a snarl, “Sam doesn’t have to fucking control me because I am _my own damn person_ , and I make my own fucking decisions, capiche?”

Dean scowls but doesn’t argue.

“And second of all,” She continues, fury mounting, “What the fuck is _wrong_ with you? Where the hell do you get off, talking to him like that? So what if he has a dream outside of this horseshit- He’s allowed that!”

“Look, I’m _sorry_ ,” Except he clearly _wasn’t,_ the sarcastic asshole, “But this? This isn’t a life you can just ditch.”

“Then he ends up not ditching it!” She shrieks- And out of the corner of her eye, she sees Dally wince. She’d have to apologize later. “But there’s no fucking shame in trying to get out! And another thing- Who the fuck do you think you are, talking to him like that _just because he was stating facts_?”

“He was talking bad about our-“

“ _He wasn’t doing fuck all about her, you piece of shit!”_ Jess’s voice feels like she’s dragged it over a cheese grater, because she doesn’t normally yell this much, but she pushes on. “He was stating a fact- She is _dead_ , and killing whatever’s responsible isn’t gonna do jackshit to get her back. He isn’t digging up her grave and setting it on fire, dumbass!”

“Well maybe we don’t _need_ it pointed out!”

“Or maybe you do, if this is how you react whenever he says something vaguely negative regarding the situation! I mean seriously, just from that conversation and the bits and pieces I’ve learned from him over the years, I know that you guys haven’t told him _dick_ about her, that you don’t let him _talk about her at all_ , really- Can you really expect him to be on board with your whole revenge thing if he _isn’t allowed to know anything about it?_ _Do you know how fucked up that is?_ ”

“Um,” Dally starts, voice quiet, “Guys?”

They don’t hear her, and Dean opens his mouth to continue the argument, so Sam intervenes.

“ _Guys!_ ”

“ _What_?!?” He jumps, but shakes it off in favor of gesturing towards the other end of the bridge- The same direction his sister was staring off into.

And for a good reason.

Jess feels a shiver go up her spine, a choked noise of terror escaping her at the sight of some poor woman _standing at the edge of the bridge like she was going to fucking jump_.

Everything feels all too still for a moment, and the woman- _Dark haired_ , Jess thinks wildly, though she can’t make out her features that well- Turns to stare at them.

And then she stepped off the edge.

The other three immediately leap into action, and Jess has to take a moment before she follows because this was just like- Just like-

_No, Jess, not the time_.

Dally takes off the quickest, and she feels like the black-haired woman somehow crosses the short distance between one blink and the next even as the she stumbles to a halt, almost throwing herself over the edge in her haste. Jess joins them a moment later, peering over and into the water, desperate for a sign that there was something they can do.

“Where’d she go?”

“I don’t- I don’t know,” Dally’s voice is frantic, eyes searching the water for any sign of where she could be.

There was something like a car engine that Jess hears behind them, and their surroundings are flooded with light- All four of them step away from the edge of the bridge, instead turning because _who the hell was driving Dean’s car_?

“What the-“

“Dean,” The blonde starts, cutting him off, “Who’s driving your car?”

He reaches into his pocket, a small jingle revealing _exactly_ where his keys were.

_Oh no._

The tires screech as the engine revves up, and Jess has no thoughts outside of _get the fuck out of there_ **_now,_ ** even as her legs refused to work.

“Guys,” Dally reaches out and began pushing the other three with her body, voice urgent, “Guys, let’s go- _Let’s go, run! Run!_ ”

They all whip around again and take off at a dead sprint, and Jess realizes, hysterically, that _they can’t outrun the damn car_ \- Someone’s body would give out before the thing runs out of gas, if it even stopped at that.

Luckily, the Winchesters seem to have come to the same conclusion, and all three of them speed up as Dally latches a near iron-like grip around her wrist.

“ _Jump_ !” She isn’t sure who it was that said it, but they all obey- Or, rather, the _Winchesters_ obey, and Dally compensates for Jess’s lack of reaction by using the grip she has to drag her over the edge of the bridge and out of the path of the car.

The last thing Jess knows before she blacks out is a sharp, sudden pain in her hand.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

The first thing Jess becomes aware of as she drifts back into awareness is an aching pain flowing down the entirety of her arm.

The second thing she becomes aware of is her boyfriend’s panicked cries for his siblings and herself.

“S’m?” His name comes out slurred and far too quiet, but it gains a small huff from whatever- _Whoever_ \- Is holding her up. She blinks a bit to clear her vision, and can barely make out the small form of- “D’l?”

“Heya sweetheart,” She starts, “I’m gonna get Sam’s attention so we can get you onto stable ground, okay?”

She doesn’t wait for a response, instead calling out to Sam from… Wherever they are. The blonde blinks, eyes bleary as she realizes that she doesn’t actually know where they’d ended up- Jess notices, dimly, that there’s nothing beneath her feet, and with Dally’s voice coming from so close by…

… Right. They’d jumped to escape the- Possessed car, she guesses? But there was no water- So had the older woman managed to not only hurl them both over the edge, but keep them from falling into the water with one arm?

_What the hell_ , she thinks, mildly hysterical, _just how fucking strong is this woman?_

While she was distracted, Dally had managed to get her brother’s attention- He’d made it back onto the bridge, from the looks of things, and was leaning down to help them back to stability.

“Sammy, I’m gonna pass her to you, okay? Get ready to pull her up,” She’d barely gotten a confirmation before she was using some impressive (And quite frankly _terrifying_ ) upper body strength to heave Jess up high enough for Sam to reach- Her boyfriend leans down a bit more gripping her arm tightly, apologizing through clenched teeth when the movement draws a small wince from his girlfriend.

“One, two, three- And up you go.”

The minute she was back on solid ground, however, she goes back down- A staggering, half aborted step has her leaning heavily on the guardrails that had likely just saved her life, and she sinks into a seated position as the stress and her arm both seemed to gang up on her. There’s movement just behind her, and suddenly Dally is next to her as well, though she turns around instead of sitting. She wonders why, for a moment, but then-

“Dean! Dean, are you okay?!?”

Oh, right- He’d jumped, too. And, as she looks around, she belatedly realizes that it doesn’t seem he’d managed to stop his descent into the water. She can almost feel herself getting worked into hysterics all over again, because _what the fuck_ , but a splash from below and a muted voice that Jess can’t quite make out seems to respond to Dally’s call.

“Dude,” Her boyfriend yells, “Are you okay?”

She wrenches herself up to stand, leaning heavily on Sam as she does so, and is able to make out a mud-soaked figure crawling his way out of the river.

“What’s it look like, you dumbass?”

A snort slips out, unbidden.

“Nice look for him,” She manages to croak out, “That the newest fashion trend?”

The startled laugh she pulls out of Sam makes the events of the last ten minutes just a bit better, all things considered.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

“Car alright?”

Sam’s question is answered by the slamming of the Impala’s hood, aggression and annoyance written all over Dean’s body.

“Yeah, whatever she did to it, it seems alright now. That Constance chick, man- What a _bitch!_ ”

“Dean, I get you’re pissed, but I’d really prefer to avoid another round of “Kill the Hunters” if it’s all the same to you,” Dally’s deadpan voice and flat expression make a grin rise on Jess’s lips, and she snickers a bit at the put out expression their mud-covered compatriot had.

“Well, she definitely doesn’t want us looking into all of this,” The blonde sighs, “Either that or this is her idea of a good time.”

“Why don’t we hope it’s the former,” Dally huffed. Sam hums his agreement, shifting to look at Dean out of the corner of his eyes.

“So where’s the trail go from here, genius?” He pauses as Dean flicks his arms in an attempt to rid himself of mud, wrinkling his nose. “You smell like a toilet.”

“Right,” Dally pushes herself off of the car door, “Motel room and a shower it is, then. Come on, kiddos, bath time.”

Dean scowls.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

“One room, please,” Dally hands over her credit card, smiling apologetically when older male stares at Dean. “Sorry about him- Tripped and fell by the river, you know how it is.”

To his credit, the worker doesn’t ask about anything else, simply taking her card to examine- And Jess decides to count herself lucky that he wasn’t looking at her, either. She was pretty sure two huge men, one of them covered in filth, would be a pretty big concern if they were also carting around an injured young woman.

“You guys having a reunion or something?”

“Hm?” Dally blinks for a moment, then seems to get a hold of herself enough to respond, voice surprisingly even. “You wouldn’t happen to mean a Mr. Bert Aframian, would you?”

“Yep,” He responds “The guy bought out a room for a whole month- Haven’t seen him recently, though.”

Dean perks up immediately at the other’s words, clearly certain that it was their father- And Jess couldn’t blame him, because that _was_ the name he’d apparently used on the credit card, if what they’d said was correct.

Looks like they were making some progress.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

The sound of a lock clicking open alerts Jess to the fact that Dally had achieved her goal of getting them into the room that may have belonged to John Winchester- Dean was kept watch for anyone who might’ve spotted them, and the blonde herself was still leaning on her boyfriend. Technically speaking, she hadn’t done much, but the rush of everything left her feeling worn down to her bones.

Sam slips inside with her, and Dally comes in soon after, pausing only to reach out and wrap a hand around the collar of Dean’s jacket to drag him in with her.

(And once again, Jess found herself wondering how strong the older woman actually was, and how she got there in the first place.

She wasn’t jealous. Nope.)

The door swings shut behind them, and the black-haired woman quickly takes her away from Sam and guides her to the bed, gesturing for her arm once she’d sat down- She could hear Sam and Dean beginning to look around, but their sister doesn’t join them, instead sitting down next to her.

“I think your wrist might’ve been dislocated, sweetheart,” Which actually explains the pain she’d been feeling, and the close examination she was getting from the older woman. “Maybe your shoulder, too, though I’m not sure yet. Hold still- Dean! Why the hell would you sniff that, it’s clearly been sitting out!”

Jess glances up in time to see Dean make a face in their direction before stating what they’d all been thinking.

“Don’t think he’s been here for a couple of days, at least.”

Dally gives a noncommittal hum and resumes her examination, prodding her shoulder a bit before looking more closely at her wrist, frowning. The blonde tunes out the other two when the smaller woman speaks up.

“So your shoulder should be fine- A bit sore, definitely, but not dislocated. Your wrist isn’t so lucky. Don’t worry, you don’t have to go to the hospital- I can pop it right back in, and you should be relatively alright. Just be careful.”

“Are you… Sure? This seems like something we should take to the hospital. Like. This is definitely a hospital thing.”

“Yeah, well we don’t do those unless we have an emergency,” Dean pipes up- He’s been examining a wall of papers, but he stopped when she mentioned getting professional help.

Sam, meanwhile, had wandered to the other side of the room to look around, and had evidently found something- Either that or he is _very_ interested in hospitals. Jess is pretty sure it’s the former.

“Dad figured it out,” Dean and Dally look over at him at the same time, and Dean verbalizes their shared confusion.

“What do you mean?”

“He found the same article we did- Constance Welch. She’s a woman in white.”

Jess narrows her eyes- She’d heard that before. Maybe when she’d been on that paranormal kick when she was fifteen? She shakes it off, instead focusing on the conversation again.

“You sly dogs,” A grin had spread across Dean’s face as he turned back to the victims, and the blonde finds herself with a scowl that mirrors Dally’s at his choice of words.

“I _do_ hope,” His sister says slowly, “That you’re speaking of our brother and our father, and _not_ of those cheating assholes when you say that.”

He quails a bit at her expression, and turns back to Sam, evidently eager to avoid this topic- Dally, however, did not, and instead turns back to Jess.

“Now about that shoulder… Here,” She hands Jess a strip of what looked like leather. “Bite down- You probably aren’t gonna like this. I’m gonna pop your wrist back into place on the count of three, alright?”

“Uh- Yeah. Yeah, okay.” She then stuffs the leather in between her teeth because this is _incredibly_ weird- She’s training to become a forensic scientist, damnit, not a medic!

“Okay. One, two-“ And then, before she reaches three, Dally snaps the bones back to where they were supposed to be- Jess bites down on the strip in her mouth, smothering the yelp of pain that escapes even as her wrist aches in response to the swift treatment. “Sorry- Didn’t want you to tense too much.”

The blonde just groans in response, spitting out the leather and noticing, belatedly, that Sam and Dean had both left the room.

“They left so that Dean could get cleaned up,” Dally answers her unasked question. “This room has a shower, too- Do you need to take one?”

“I’m good,” She wheezes, “I’m good.”

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

“Hey guys,” Dean is throwing on his jacket as he speaks, muffling his voice a bit, “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving- Gonna grab a little something at that diner we passed down the street. Anyone want anything?”

Dally hums a bit before shaking her head, Sam distractedly following her example while he… Cleans a knife? _Sharpens_ a knife? Jess goes to look a bit more closely, then decides she might not want to get her eyes to close to the pointy-whatever.

“Jess?” She jumps, looking at the black-haired woman. “You want anything? Dean’s going out.”

“Um,” Is her intelligent response. “I’ll go with, I guess.”

“You sure?” The surprise in the man’s voice isn’t odd- She _had_ punched him in the face, earlier.

“Yeah- Might as well see what they’ve got for myself,” And with those words, she stands, throwing on the jacket she’d placed over the back of her chair. “And besides, I’ve gotta talk to you.”

Dean looks hilariously unwilling to have that conversation. “If you’re sure.”

“Hey, jerk,” Dean looks up from the door at his brother’s words. “Don’t get my girlfriend arrested if you decide to do something stupid, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah. Only if she doesn’t punch me again.”

The two walk out before the taller male can respond, Dean closing the door with a click. He adjusts his jacket as he walks out of the lot and down the street, flipping the collar up a bit more and messing with the sleeves- And Jess wonders, suddenly, if he was nervous.

_Might as well put him out of his misery._

“Listen,” She starts, “About everything on the bridge… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have punched you out of nowhere- It didn’t do anything to help the situation, and maybe if I hadn’t, we wouldn’t have almost gotten run over.”

Dean looks surprised at her words.

“Well, it could’ve been worse- At least you didn’t knee me in the balls,” His smirk falls a bit as he continues. “But, uh- Why _did_ you punch me? Sam was perfectly capable of defending himself, you know.”

“Maybe. But Sam is…” Jess pauses, thinking on how, exactly, to word her thoughts. “Sam is huge- You know that, obviously.”

“No shit I know that. Kid’s a fucking giant.”

“But Sam- He’s also gentle, and kind, and so, so good, even if he doesn’t seem to think it at times. I remember one time, he got drunk and curled up on the couch with me- Told me that sometimes he wondered if it was enough, everything he was doing. Like there was some wrong he had to make up for, and I… It made me wonder who’d made him feel like that. And then I saw you talking to him like that, pushing him up against the edge, and I- I was _so_ _angry_ that the person who might’ve been responsible was right in front of me. I was angry that they were doing it again. So I reacted.”

Evidently, he hadn’t expected that little speech, but to his credit, he doesn’t seem offended. She notices, peripherally, that they’d stopped behind an old car just outside their room as they’d started speaking, but she brushes that aside.

“Sammy…” He clears his throat, voice rough. “Sammy’s always been good. Been kind- People have always found it easy to talk to him when they’re hurting. He has this way of making himself seem… Soft, I guess. Comforting. And I don’t know what he thinks he’d have to make up for, but it- It ain’t _bad_ , I can tell you that. He’s a lot of things, but bad ain’t one.”

The two of them pause, and Jess feels, suddenly, suffocatingly, that they’re in the midst of some desperate, blindingly important moment.

“I want to help him,” Her voice is soft with emotion. “I want to protect him, because he deserves that and so, so much more.”

“You ain’t the only one,” Dean shifts a bit. “And for what it’s worth- I’m glad he has someone willing to go to bat for him. I know I haven’t done it nearly enough where it counts, and Dally loves him, loves us both, but having people she cares about get mad at her gets her tense and it’s just-“

“I get it.”

He pauses, awkward.

“Good. That’s- That’s good. Um. We were gonna- Food? We were doing food. Getting food. So let’s move.”

The blonde snorts a bit at how awkward he seemed after their little heart-to-heart, but doesn’t push him- She just follows him out from behind the car and across the lot.

Follows him right into his back, actually.

“Dean? What’s-“

“Son of a bitch,” He turns around a bit, whipping out a phone and dialing a number she can’t make out. She stares before shifting a bit, looking behind him to see-

_Oh fuck_.

“Dude, 5-0. Take off,” She turns when she hears him start talking, wondering who he’d called- Dally and Sam? “Uh, they kinda spotted us, but we’ll be fine- Yes, Sam, I’ll look after Jess. Go find Dad.”

He flips the phone shut, turning around to address the officers that had walked up to them- Jess decides to follow his lead, because she really had no idea what the hell to do with this situation.

_I’m too young for this stress, damnit._

“Problem, officers?”

“Where’s your partner?”

“Partner, what- What partner?” Dean sounds more nervous that confused, and Jess mentally reminds herself to _not_ kick him, because that would blow their cover irreparably.

_Don’t kick the idiot, don’t kick the idiot, don’t kick the-_

“So,” The officer’s voice draws their attention back to him, “Fake U.S. marshal, fake credit cards- You got anything that’s real?”

“Her boobs.”

_Fuck it. Kick the idiot. Kick the idiot so. Fucking. Hard. No babies for him in the future._

She’s knocked out of her mildly violent thoughts involving steel toed boots by one of the officers slamming her onto the roof of a car- Dean, she notices, is getting the same treatment. She makes a pissed off face at him when he turns to her, and she thinks he gets the message from the sheepish grin on his face.

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…”

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

“So do you two wanna give us your real names?”

The officer that walked into the room was carrying a heavy looking box with him, Jess notes idly. He’d placed it on the other side of the table, which means it probably concerns them in some way- Evidence, maybe, or a list of possible crimes?

He still very clearly didn’t believe Dean’s fake names.

“I told you,” Dean’s voice is almost condescending, and the blonde quietly counts down from ten in her head to refrain from kicking him. “It’s Nugent- Ted Nugent.”

“And your friend?”

“Marian Anderson, sir,” She cuts in before Dean can answer, following along with his idea of using a famous name as his alias. It isn’t a bad idea, made searching more difficult because you’d have to search through stuff on the musician- _Wait, no, concentrate Jess_. “And I’m sorry, but what, exactly, are you holding me for? I know what Ted’s been accused of, but-“

She’s ignored, and the officer instead turns to Dean- She scowls, but doesn’t draw attention to herself as he continues talking. Just gives her more time to think of… Something.

“I’m not sure you’re aware of how much trouble you and your girlfriend are in here.” Jess makes a face at that- She was very much into his brother, thank you, not him.

She’s ignored again as Dean continues to keep the attention on himself. “Are we talking misdemeanor kinda trouble or squeal like a pig trouble?”

The officer- She still doesn’t know his name- Scowls. “You’ve got the faces of ten missing persons taped to your wall, and a whole lot of satanic mumbo jumbo. Boy, you are officially a suspect.”

Okay, the focus he has on Dean is getting weird- Sure, it could be sexism, but he hasn’t mentioned her at all. Something about that feels distinctly off to her, and a constricting feeling begins to make itself known in the pit of her stomach.

Something is very, very wrong.

Dean doesn’t seem to notice it, though, and she’s tired of being ignored anyways, so she steps in. “Okay, yeah, ‘cause that makes sense- You know he was three when that first one in ’82 went missing, right?”

Her words seem to get the attention of the other occupants in the room- The officer looked annoyed (Maybe ‘cause she called him on his bullshit?), and Dean was weirdly… Not panicked. Worried? She did hear him promise Sam that he would protect her.

“I know he’s got partners,” There he goes, excluding her again- What the fuck was going on? “And one of them’s an older guy. Maybe he started the whole thing.”

“Okay then. Where is it?” He stares at her, confused. “You said that like you had evidence, so where is it? Where is the- The written account of a man matching the older guy’s description, or maybe a photograph? Don’t tell me all you have is that motel room. That’s piss poor work, even for an old lump like yourself- What’s to say this isn’t a passion project of his?”

She’s stared at for a moment, and she had to fight down a grin.

Just because I’m new to hunting doesn’t mean I’m new to other stuff.

The officer scowls at her again, clearly aggravated. “I might not know about you, but I know his name is Dean. So tell me, boy,” He throws an old notebook onto the table, “This his?”

Dean stares at it for a moment, dumbfounded.

“Thought that might be your name- See, I leafed through this, and from what little I could make out… Well, it’s nine kinds of crazy,” He begins turning pages, stopping only when he reaches one that was nearly blank. “But I found this, too. Now, you’re staying right here until you tell me exactly what the hell that means.”

Jess peers over his shoulder, confused- It looks like a combination of some sort. A locker?... Coordinates, maybe? Sam did mention that John had been a marine once.

She stops looking when she feels something fall from her wrist and a hand wrap around her arm, skin rough as she’s dragged out of her chair and marched to the door.

Something is wrong wrong _wrong get out get outgetout_!

Dean snaps his head up.

“Hey, hey, hey, the hell are you doing, man?”

“You friend is going to have some… Different accommodations, is all. Now get thinking.”

The door closes behind him with a click, and even though it wasn’t all that hard, Jess still feels like a tremor had moved from there and into her heart.

_Fuck_.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

The door swings open with an aggravating creak, and Dally fights the urge to cover her ears and hide from the noise- Pissing off the man they were trying to interview would do no one any good.

“Hi, uh,” Sam is the one who starts their impromptu interrogation, “Are you Joseph Welch?”

“Yeah.”

“We’d like to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind,” She moves to pull a picture out of her pocket as she speaks, “About the man in this picture? You wouldn’t have happened to have seen him- Or someone like him- Around recently, would you?”

The aging male peers at the photograph, eyes narrowed, and Dally silently prays that he didn’t look too closely- It was a picture of their father, Sam seated on his lap and Dean and Dally on either side. They were all smiling.

It was one of the few pictures where they were happy, after the fire.

“- Working on a story together.” She jumps when she realizes that she’d tuned out of the conversation- Sam, luckily, has stayed on task and continued the line of questions.

“Well I don’t know what the Hell kinda story you’re working on- The kinda questions he asked me…”

“About your late wife, Constance?” Dally does her best to make her voice sympathetic, even if she was less than pleased with the man before her, provided their information was right.

_He was the exact kind of guy Warren would’ve punched in the face._

She shakes that thought off as Joseph gives her a half annoyed, half bewildered expression. “He asked me where she was buried.”

“Yeah, I’m… Sorry about that,” She makes a show of wincing. “He’s always had a habit of digging up stuff that never even makes it into the final cut- Likes to be thorough for his own sake, I guess.”

“Well, I’ll tell you the same damn thing I told him- By my old place by Breckenridge.”

“Sir, if you don’t mind my asking- Did you move because it was too painful after your wife died, or because it’s where-“

“I’m not gonna live in the place where my children died,” The man’s voice is full of pain, and Dally feels a pang of sympathy for him- He might’ve made a bad decision, but he had, at least, loved his kids.

Sam continues while she goes quiet. “Mr. Welch, did you ever marry again?”

“No way. Constance- She was the love of my life, prettiest woman I ever known.”

_Then why the fuck did you cheat on her?_

He does not, of course, answer her mental line of questioning, and she finds herself stepping back mentally and allowing Sam to begin talking again, curling her arms around herself as a painfully sickening feeling makes itself known- She hates cases that deal with dead children more than any other, even if it had been a while since they died.

It wasn’t exactly a fear- Not like Sam was scared of clowns and Dean of flying- As much as those cases just… Unnerved her.

She could already feel herself drifting, like the tether connecting her mind and her body is too frayed to keep working- The world feels ( _felt?_ ) hazy and weird, and her own body does-doesn’t feel real, or maybe even wasn’t real at all. Dally wonders, for a single, distant moment, if she wasn’t a hunter but the spirit of something long past, caught in a loop to make herself feel better.

It doesn’t feel like her thought. She isn’t sure she cares.

“So you had a happy marriage?”

Her brother’s ( _she had that, right, that was realrealreal_ ) voice sounds muffled and distant... She doesn’t want to be here. Didn’t?

( _where was here? why was she there? she knows there’s a house but she can’t-_ )

Joseph’s face twists, uncertainty in his mouth even as he dripped lies. “Definitely.”

( _liar liar liar liarliarliarliar_ )

Sam looks down, apparently having spotted the same look she maybe-did. “Well, that should do it,” He relents. “Thanks for your time.”

Dally spins on her heel and walk-drifts to the car, avoiding looking back, arms still coiled around her- She knows, distantly, like you hear through a radio with a bad connection, that Sam would be worried about her behavior, because he was observant enough to notice.

The sounds from the outside world are shut off with a quiet thud as the she closed the door behind her, though, laying the side of her head against the window as she closes her eyes and takes in a breath deep enough to make it feel like a hole had been worn into the back of her throat.

( _stop it stop itstopit be real it’s real wake up-_ )

Her own thoughts are like fog passing through her fingers- Not tangible or real in a way that mattered, like sand.

But she knows she needed to wake up- To gather the frayed portions of herself back together, because Sam would ask questions and they didn’t have time for that- Or maybe they did, but she didn’t want ( _did she?_ ) him to see her like this.

She slides a hand into her old leather jacket ( _was is hers? did she have a jacket?... did she have a hand? there was a hand but was it hers or-)_ , the weight like lead on her arm, pins and needles scattered about like one of the two was asleep. Her fingers meet cool metal, and she withdraws from the hidden pocket she had stitched into it.

Hazily, she notes that Sam isn’t looking at the car, which is good. She lays her wrist over the dashboard.

And then she stabs the needle through it, in one end and out the other, creating another set of small, barely-there scars that had dragged her back into the real world.

The sudden _realrealreal_ pain has her hissing through clenched teeth, and, after glancing through the window to make sure no one was looking (Sam was still talking to Mr. Welch, which. Okay, all the power to him), she pulls the needle free- A single look was all she needed to know it was one of the bigger ones, three or four inches long but as sterilized as the rest.

She quickly grabs a small plastic baggy to store it in for the time being, placing it in her bag so she could clean it later. By the time Sam got in the car, she had managed to wrap a bandage around the injury, blood already cleaned and no one the wiser.

“You okay?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah,” She makes a show of appearing unconcerned to her younger brother, silently begging him to not ask about what happened. “I think I cut myself earlier, just wrapping it up.”

Dally doubts that he believes her, but he lets it slide anyways, revving the engine and handing a phone over to her as he explained his idea.

She relaxes a bit.

“Okay, so they’re gonna need a chance to-“

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

“I don’t know how many times you want me to tell you,” Dean is desperately trying to make his voice sound far more calm than he actually felt. “It’s my high-school locker combo.”

“Are we gonna do this all night long?”

_Yes_ , he thinks sourly, _because you took Jess, and Sam will never trust me again if you shitbags do something to her under my watch._

There is also, of course, the fact that being loved by Sam made her a Winchester _by default_ . He isn’t an idiot, he knows Sam is gonna marry that girl, and that means she’s his sister(-in-law-to-be), and you do _not_ fuck with his sister(-in-law-to-be).

Her punching him a while ago meant _nothing_ in the face of that, for as much crap as he tried to give his baby brother beforehand.

(He refuses to admit that his anger may also, in part, be because he’s beginning to see her as a friend.)

“Hey,” A new officer pokes his head into the room, and Dean wonders, morbidly, if they were gonna try some more in-depth interrogation methods. “We just got a 911- Shots fired over at Whiteford Road.”

The original officer- Dean thought he’d said his name at some point, but he doesn’t care to remember- Turns to him. “You have to go to the bathroom?”

“No.”

“Good,” And with that, a pair of cuffs were clicked onto his wrists. He stares a bit, pulling and tugging experimentally.

No dice.

_Well then._

He looks up when he hears the door shut before turning back to his father’s journal- _And god, what the hell had happened, to make him leave that thing behind_ \- An idea forming in his mind. He’d seen something that looked like a paperclip, so he just needs to-

The door opening up again makes him snap his hand away from the table, desperate to look inconspicuous- It was probably the old bastard again.

He stares when he realizes that it is not, in fact, the old bastard.

“ _Jess?_ ”

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

The door that swings shut behind her feels more ominous than Jess feels it should, even as she’s being led away from Dean and to… Somewhere. She still isn’t sure, really, but she knows this isn’t standard operating procedure.

_What the hell is going on here?_

She’s taken through the buildings, past so many turns that she wonders if they’ve been going in circles, before they reach their destination. Said destination is a door that’s just about as inconspicuous as literally _every other door they’d passed_ , and the blonde finds herself wondering what was behind it.

A churning feeling begins in the pit of her stomach, and she tenses as the door opens and she was dragged through.

What lay on the other side is both terrifying and mildly underwhelming.

There is no dark, dirty room with grizzled, shady looking people inside, ready to torture her to get their information, as was often seen in movies- Instead, the room is fairly well lit, a single table standing in the middle with three or four chairs scattered around it, and a counter on the side of the room opposite to the door.

Despite the seemingly harmless looking area, the sinking in her stomach only worsens.

The blonde is made to sit down in the chair farthest from the door, in between two unknown men in suits- The officer, she notices, had turned and left.

The click as he did made her wonder if she’d signed a death warrant somewhere along the line.

“You’re Anderson, correct?”

She stares at the one who’d spoken- Jess was taller than them both, but he was closest to her height, a shock of red hair letting him reach to about her eyes. The other, a tanned man of Asian descent, reaches just below that. Her nose, maybe? Both are dressed in high end suits, and-

“Miss?”

The blonde shakes out of her line of thought when she realizes that it was distracting her from the two in front of her. “I- Yes, sorry, I was lost in thought. That’s me.” She gives a shaky smile in hopes that they didn’t think she was looking them up like a creep.

From the looks on their faces, they don’t believe her. She silently curses herself for her decision to not take acting with her boyfriend. Regardless, the redhead speaks. “Right. I’m Andrews, and this is my partner, Ichihara- We’re from the Secure Community Program. Miss Anderson, if you don’t mind, we’d like to ask you some question about your friends.”

“What friends?”

Her response gets her a hard look. “Ma’am, we know you arrived at that motel with three other people- Two young men and an Asian woman. But I’ll tell you right now- You give us what we want, and you and your tall boyfriend can walk away like this never happened.”

The air feels strangely tense, she realizes.

“We know your name is Jessica Lee Moore, and your boyfriend is Samuel William Winchester. If we’re right, those other two are his siblings, Dean Michael Winchester and Magdalene Mary Winchester.” _That_ made her pause. “We’ve been looking for them for a while now. We won’t hurt them, we just want to talk- We think they could help our organization out a lot.”

Somehow, she doesn’t believe that, but it doesn’t seem to matter, because they take her silence as a confirmation.

Ichihara had gotten behind her, she realizes hysterically, and was holding a syringe- _Where the fuck did he get that? What was in it?_

“We’d like you to take this, if you don’t mind,” Her interrogator says, voice polite, “We’d like to ask you a few more questions, but you’ll have to be sedated for safety purposes.”

Three things happened, seemingly at once.

First, Ichihara had moved to press the syringe into her neck.

Second, Andrews had moved to restrain her and give his partner an opening.

And third, Jessica Lee Moore found out that, when stressed, she could lift and swing a table with enough force to knock two grown men off their feet and into unconsciousness.

She stares.

“ _Fuck._ ”

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

“What, so you just flipped a table at them and they went unconscious?” Dean was grinning at her as he spoke, voice drenched in amusement. “Damn girl, we should’ve brought you along a while ago. Nice.”

Jess stared at him as he peered through the interrogation room window. “Uh. Thanks? It was kinda terrifying, though.” Her response got a scoff, and she glared at him as he led them through the door, explaining herself. “No, seriously, the things they said- A sedative or something, they were gonna inject me with it.”

“ _What._ ” The alarm in his voice just served to unnerve her more, and she found herself looking around, hair standing on end as they slipped through the back door, unseen.

“And they said that they were looking for you, and Dally- They knew my name, Dean, and Sam’s! Do you guys have to deal with this every-”

Dean pulled her into a phone booth, cutting her off mid-sentence. He didn’t respond to her questions, either, simply pulled the payphone off the wall and began dialing a number.

His hands were shaking a bit, and Jess suddenly got the feeling that this wasn’t normal for them.

“Fake 911 phone call, you two? I don’t know-“

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

“-That’s pretty illegal,” Dally grinned a bit at the sound of Dean’s voice over the phone- He seemed fine enough, a bit nervous, but okay, all things considered. Sam noticeably relaxed his grip on the wheel, evidently less stressed by the knowledge that the others were alright.

He grinned. “You’re welcome.”

“Hey, listen, both of you- We’ve gotta talk,” And was it just her, or was Dean’s voice almost nervous?

“Tell me about it,” Sam either didn’t notice or just wanted to try and chatter to cool his nerves- He’d done it a lot as a kid, and the habit had persisted. “So the husband _was_ unfaithful- It’s definitely a woman in white. She’s buried behind her old house, though, so I can’t figure out why Dad hasn’t-“

“Sammy, I love you, but can you hold on for a moment?” His mouth shut with a click at his girlfriend’s voice, and his sister found herself worried- She sounded shaken. _What the hell happened over there?_

His voice came out concerned. “Jess? What’ What’s wrong? Are you guys okay?”

“Well first of all, Dad’s gone,” Dean spoke up, “Left Jericho- Not sure why.”

Dally straightened up at that. “What the fuck do you mean, he’s gone? How do you know?”

“He let his journal behind.”

“What? That’s crazy- The man never lets that thing go ten feet from him.”

“Yeah, well it went a lot farther than that, this time.”

“Does it say anything? Like- Like a message, or-“

“Same old ex-Marine stuff, Dally- Some coordinates, but that’s it. Not sure where they lead to yet.”

“Guys, what the Hell is going on?” Sam butted into the conversation again, and she could see the stress on his face- Arguments might have been common between himself and their father, but he did love the man. “This doesn’t make any- _Woah-_ “

Dally had to have jumped a foot off the car seat as Sam slammed on the breaks, and she looked up just in time to see them hit someone. By the time the car stopped, they were both breathing heavily, and she could register that they’d hit the one being they probably didn’t want to at night.

Mainly because she’d taken up residence in their back seat.

Neither of them knew how she’d react to other women, and Dally found her breathing slowed down to the point where she herself wasn’t even sure even she was actually preforming the action.

“ _Take me home._ ”

The words were said as less of a request and more of a demand, and she felt, suddenly, like she was choking on something all too tangible- A presence in the air that reeked of wrongness and betrayal and grief and regret.

_Fuck fuck fuck this is bad._

“ _Take. Me. Home.”_

Constance’s words were spaced out now, aggravation leaking from her voice when Sam hadn’t immediately leap to complete her request, and Dally, not for the first time, felt a very real, very visceral fear settle in her gut at what might happen to him.

“No.”

Her brother’s voice was flat and even, and she let herself hope, for a wild moment, that it would be enough to get her to back off while they figured something else out.

But they were Winchesters, so off course it wasn’t that easy.

The locks of the Impala clicked shut, and they found themselves checking them for any sort of give frantically, even as the car began to drive itself _\- Again, fuck, they had to get out of here_ **_now_ ** . The pressure in the air seemed to increase alongside of it, and she found herself choking on it- On the taste and thickness of _I hate you_ and _how could you_ and _how could I_ and _what have I done_ and _I didn’t mean to_ and _I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry-_

She was wheezing frantically at this point, emotions in her mind and tears in her eyes as _Magdalene_ and _Constance_ became _MagdaleneandConstance_ and God, help her it was too much, she couldn’t _breathe,_ and she was seeing everything again and again _and_ _againandagain-_

_Helpmehelpmehelpme_

“Dally?... Dally? Magdalene! Fuck- Don’t do this,” Sam’s voice was there, but not fully, and she found herself choking beneath _they’re all sinners_ and _traitor traitor traitor_ again before she could use it as an anchor to pull herself out.

“ _I can never go home.”_

And she _felt_ it, deeply and painfully and disturbingly, felt that mind-numbing, all-encompassing shame and grief like it was her own, maybe because it _was_ her own.

She couldn’t see what was happening, she could only see blood and bone and _no no no not again help help me_ -

Distantly, she knew that Sam was talking again, but there was _so much_ and she couldn’t figure out if he was real or memory or dead or alive, because sometimes there was a car and a house and Sam and sometimes there was a tub and a bridge and her dead children and sometimes there was-

-And over everything, distantly, she felt something else- Felt _Jess_ and _I don’t want to_ and _stop stop stop_ -

_Sammy,_ she realized, sickness in her veins _. Sammy, what’s wrong? Sammy?_

The jolt was enough to drag her away from the emotions _\- Not her own, and that scared her, what had happened-_ And back into reality, albeit just barely. The air is still thick with that same heaviness, so Dally holds her breath for lack of anything else to do and looks to the side.

She sees Constance on Sam, sees him denying her and her refusing, sees _shame_ in the body of her baby brother, and Magdalene Mary Winchester sees fucking red.

_No one fucked with her baby brother and got away with it._ **_No one._ **

The next thing she knows, there’s a scream and a flash and the sound of the windows on Dean’s baby shattering- And for a moment, the world is bright and white and so many brilliant colors that she can’t begin to name, doesn’t _want_ to-

Constance’s unearthly scream snaps her out of her trance- The woman is nowhere to be found, but she notes the seared holes in Sam’s shirt. She wants, desperately, to tell him that it will be okay, that she will _never_ let someone, human or otherwise, do that to him again, but she feels boneless, suddenly, like her energy had been stolen straight from her body and into the air.

All she managed was a weak, breathless sort of noise as she rolled onto her side before ultimately passing out.

Her last thought is that she at least wishes she could hug him.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

Sam isn’t sure what happened- He knows they’d… Hit? Phased through? Constance Welch. He knows that she took control of the car, and that the entire time, the pressing feeling of _something-_ He didn’t know what- Had been steadily increasing.

He knows that his older sister had slowly started to choke on it, had started crying, muted words escaping her, though he couldn’t make them out. He knows that, as they’d arrived at the abandoned house, Constance had tried to- Tried to force herself on-

_Don’t think about it. Not now, not the time._

Constance is gone for the moment, though- How he isn’t sure. There was a bright flash and a scream ( _It had sounded like his sister_ ) and an incredible, indescribable warmth that he found himself longing for again.

“Sammy? Sammy!”

A glance out the window tells him that Jess and Dean had somehow reached their location- _Dean probably hijacked a car_ , he thought wryly- But they either hadn’t seen the flash (Though he didn’t know how) or had put it out of their minds while they focused on removing Sam and Dally from the vehicle.

_Oh fuck, Dally._

It takes some effort, and the place where Constance had reached into his chest _burns,_ but he shifts enough to look at his now unconscious sister. She’s alive, which is a relief, but that didn’t mean she looks good.

Her body had slumped over sideways and towards him as everything was happening, the seatbelt restraining her awkwardly- There are dried tear tracks on her face, and her breathing is labored and distressed in a way that worries him. He isn’t sure what happened to send her into a fit like that- He’d sure as Hell never seen her act like that on a hunt- But his gut tells him that Constance had something to do with it.

The rush of rage that flows through him at that thought has him wrenching himself into a seated position, only checking that Jess and Dean were out of the way briefly before he slams down on the gas pedal hard enough to make him wonder how he didn’t break it.

“I’m taking you home.”

He catches a brief glimpse of Constance in the rearview mirror, and he can’t help the grim smile that crosses his face at her expression of terror, even as he hears the others scream his name as the car takes off.

_Serves you right_ , he thinks, fury still writhing uncomfortably under his skin- And if this is how his family felt whenever they saw him hurt, then he thinks he understands them a bit better.

The car collides with the side of the house as he’s thinking, driving through it at full force and throwing him forwards- He manages to lean over to Dally’s unconscious body and stop her from doing the same and hitting her head, albeit barely.

“Sam? Dally?”

Dean’s voice hits him like a sledgehammer, and his head throbs with the weight of everything that’s happened so far, but he manages to look up and respond regardless. “I’m over here!” His voice is hoarse, he notes, and he can’t help but wonder how much worse Dally likely sounds.

His heart aches at the thought, and he shakes it off.

“Sam, are you guys alright?” Jess’s voice has him relaxing a bit, and he sees his brother and his girlfriend picking their way through the wreckage of the wall to get to the door- Dean, he notices, has a gun, though he can’t make out the type, and he wonders what the fuck he thought that would do against a ghost.

“Not sure,” He manages to get out, “Dally’s unconscious.”

Dean swears briefly, moving to the other side of the car as Jess works on getting his door open. “Shit, she doesn’t look good- What the fuck happened to you guys?”

He doesn’t respond- Mainly because he’s too busy looking at a distracted Constance Welch. Jess had managed to get him out and around the car, but that movement may have caught her attention, and he really doesn’t think that’s a good thing.

She’s holding a picture, currently, but when she looks up, she throws it aside, furious in a cold way that unnerves him to his core.

Dean’s turning around to repeat his question is ill timed in that it allows her to crush the three of them against the side of his Baby with an old, heavy dresser, and Sam finds himself quietly grateful that Dally, at least, doesn’t have to deal with this on top of whatever the Hell had happened before.

He can only hope that his plan doesn’t fall through at this point.

_Come on, come on, ghosts are born of violent death come_ **_on-_ **

Sam finds himself immensely grateful for the sound of slow-moving water dripping down the stairs of the old Welch house.

Constance doesn’t share his feelings, it seems, if the look of empty horror on her face as the children above her link hands is anything to go by.

“ _You’ve come home to us, Mommy._ ”

Dean and Jess seem a bit confused, but all Sam can feel is a sharp relieve that this might end in a few seconds, so he doesn’t both explaining, simply stares as the events continue and Constance tries, in vain, to run from what she did.

The sound of water speeds up as the children vanish, reappearing behind their mother and staring, gaze empty, and he wonders, suddenly, how it must feel for them to see her after all this time.

Probably not good.

Before she can run again, they cling to her dress, refusing to move even as their mother begins to release a horrific, terrifying wail- It shakes Sam to his core, and it doesn’t look like either of the people beside him are any better. The noise simply goes on and on, however, and the form of all three distorted before them- It had been long enough since Sam had seen a ghost pass on that he finds the sight unnerving, and Jess doesn’t look any better.

And then it’s over- The children and Constance almost drain away, disappearing into the ground entirely, and he slumps against the dresser a bit as they do, a bone-deep exhaustion settling in his body.

The dresser isn’t there for long, though- It rattles, shaky, and he wonders if they’re going to have to face another ghost as it goes flying across the room.

“God, my head hurts.”

Dally’s voice comes out hoarse, like she’d been screaming, and Sam slumps against the car as relief fills him when he hears her talk- Dean had turned around immediately, pulling her out of the car and over to the hood.

“You have no idea,” The youngest Winchester chokes out, “How happy I am to see you conscious.”

His older sister smiles at him, clearly tired but still moving, and pushes herself off the car despite their brother’s fussing. “Can’t say I know what happened- It’s a bit fuzzy, sorry.”

Sam brushes that off, and Dean finally stops his mothering, albeit reluctantly, instead moving to look at the puddle that had been left behind by their case. Sam follows him after a moment, while Jess and Dally simply stay put, breathing a little after what happened.

“So this is where she drowned her kids?”

He makes a noise of confirmation at the back of his throat before responding. “It’s why she was scared to go home- She couldn’t own up to what she did.”

“You found her weak spot.” Dean grinned as he turned to walk to the car. “Nice work, Sammy.” He smacked his brother on the chest as he walked away, and it got a few pained laughs out of him- Dally was by his side immediately, despite Sam being pretty damn certain she was just by the car, medical kit ( _Where the Hell did she get that from?)_ in hand.

“Sammy?” Her voice is soft, still strained in a way that makes him wonder if her volume is for her or for him. “Sammy, are you alright? I know she did something to you- Do I need to look at it?”

“I don’t think so, Dally, just sore, but uh- Thanks for offering.” She nods quietly, not pushing, and he turns to Dean instead. “And as for you- What the Hell did you think a gun would do against Casper the friendly ghost, over there?”

His brother scoffs out something about _probably saving your asses_ , then changes the subject. “I’ll tell you two one thing, though- If you screwed up my car, I’ll kill you both.”

Dally’s indignant yelp of “ _I wasn’t even conscious, you ass!”_ Gets a laugh out of everyone.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

The car ride back to Stanford is a quiet affair- Dean was focused on driving, often over the speed limit (Much to Sam’s chagrin), Sam himself was looking over a map for where their father meant to send his siblings, Jess had curled up against the car door to take a nap, and Dally was flipping through their father’s journal absentmindedly.

“Okay, here’s where the coordinates say Dad went- It’s called Blackwater Ridge, Colorado.”

Dean made a face at the name of the area Sam had found before turning away. “Sounds charming. How far?”

“About 600 miles.”

“Huh,” Dally hummed a bit, poking her head over the seat to look at the map herself. “Doesn’t sound too bad- Not the closest, but still pretty good.”

“If we shag ass, we can make it by morning.”

His siblings’ heads snapped in his direction, Dally’s eyes sad as Sam made a motion as if to speak, cut himself off, then started again. “Dean, um-“ The eldest couldn’t help but feel bad for her youngest brother, and how he so clearly didn’t want to upset them, but still wanted to do his own thing. And a part of her hated it- Hated how he was going to leave them _again_ , hated how she was going to be perpetually down a family member _again_.

But.

She thinks of Sam, so clearly proud of how far he’d come. Thinks of Jess, just as proud and willing to punch Dean Winchester, who was very intimidating when it came to violence, in the face when she thought he did her youngest brother wrong.

She thinks of how much _she_ , his older sister, had wronged him.

It wasn’t fair to just act like that was on Sam, was it? He was just following his dream. Like they’d agreed to let him.

She took a deep breath and spoke before Dean could.

“Right- Sorry, forgot for a moment there. Felt a bit like old times, you know?” She tried to smile, though she wasn’t sure how well she did. “You have to go to the-“

“Interview,” Sam finished her statement, voice gentle. “I’m sorry guys, but it’s in ten hours, I’ve gotta be there- And Jess isn’t exactly used to all of this back-to-back, anyways.”

And she could see how Dean wanted to argue, in his own way- How he didn’t want them, either of them, to leave their little home-on-wheels. Dally had to sigh a bit, because she understood, she _did_ \- But it wasn’t their place to guilt their baby brother out of one of the only things he’d ever really wanted in life.

_None of this is very fair, is it?_

So she leaned over the seat and squeezed Dean’s shoulder, and, for the first time in a long time, she took the decision out of her brother’s hands.

“Alright, Sammy. We’ve got you- We’ll get you home.”

And even though she could feel Dean tensing as she spoke, even as the loop of _don’t leave don’t leave I’m sorry_ **_please_ ** _don’t leave me_ started up and made that aching fear of upsetting her loved ones apparent, she couldn’t help but see, at the same time, the thankful look on Sam’s face, and the love in his eyes as he turned to look at Jess before he turned the flashlight off.

She tightened her grip on Dean’s shoulder a bit.

Even if it terrified her, it was high time she stood in Sam’s corner, too.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

Jess had woken up by the time they reached the apartment the woman shared with her younger brother, and the two of them stepped out of the car in unison, the blonde stretching a bit as she did so- Probably, in Dally’s opinion, because she wasn’t as used to being cooped up like that as they were. Sam gave her a long, wordless look, and she grinned before turning around to walk into the building, a quick “ _It was nice meeting you two- Maybe we can hang out again some time!”_ being thrown over her shoulder as she did so.

The eldest Winchester was pretty sure she was gonna go collapse on the nearest soft surface, and she couldn’t stop the smile that stretched across her face at the thought.

Sam, meanwhile, turned around once he saw her enter the doorway, bending over to peer through passenger door window. There wasn’t a smile on his face, but Dally also didn’t think she was imagining the look of peace that hadn’t quite been there before.

_Maybe all three of us needed this._

“You two call me when you find Dad, alright? Or even before that- I think Jess would enjoy seeing you again.” He actually did grin a bit at that, and Dally noticed Dean relaxing, just a bit, at the idea that this wasn’t a permanent goodbye. “It’d be nice for all of us to hang out again.”

“Roger that, Sam-beano.” Dean snickered at her use of the old nickname, and Sam groaned, audibly banging his head on the top of the car- But they all knew he was smiling, too.

“You and your _nicknames_.”

“Hey man, her nicknames are _great_ -“

“Right, because you loved it when she calls you- What was it? Oh yeah- Dean-arino.”

“ _Shut up you little shit.”_

And for the first time in a long while, Dally found herself laughing- _Really_ laughing. A belly-deep, full bodied thing, that made her shake and curl in on herself in a vain attempt to stifle it.

“I’ll have you both know that my nicknames are amazing. Shame on you.”

Her youngest brother grinned again, pausing for a moment, as if to savor the familial air hanging around them. He sighed after a moment, patting the car’s roof absentmindedly. “So I… Should probably take off.”

They all quieted at that- At the reminder of splitting off again.

“Yeah,” Dean’s voice was hollow, “That’s- You probably should.”

Despite his words, no one moved.

The idea of giving Sam her number and her email and instructions to “ _Contact Bobby if those don’t work and you wanna talk_ ” crossed her mind, but those screeched to a halt relatively quickly as something else made itself known to her.

She inhaled through her nose, something unpleasant tightening in her stomach at a familiar scent, though she couldn’t place what it was. She shifted and got out of the car, ignoring her brother’s questions as she did so, breathing in again and catching that same scent, frowning.

_But what is it?_

It was coming from Sam’s apartment, she noticed, something like burning- Had Jess tried to cook someth-

_\--Something was wrongwrongwrong it’s bright they’re running away and Mommy and Daddy were gone and it smelled so bad, why did it smell like that_

_“MARY! MARY, NO, PLEASE-“_

_Daddy was screaming why was he screaming???_

_… Where was Mommy?—_

Her breath caught in her throat as the scent finally registered, and she ignored her brothers as she charged for the apartments, desperate to get there before something terrible happened.

_Not again not again oh God not again-_

She crashed through the door, her brothers’ concerned yells background noise at this point, forcing herself to get up from the splintered remains underneath her as the scent became more obvious to her- Her gut was twisting horrifically at this point, and she knew this wasn’t a simple case of someone getting burned while cooking.

“Sam! Sammy, where’s your room?”

Dally knew she looked like a goddamn psycho at this point, but she didn’t care- She didn’t know why things were going a bit differently this time, but she knew she had to move _now._

“I- It’s down the hall, but Dally, what the Hell are you-“

“No time,” She choked out- Crackling was ringing through her ears, and she didn’t know if it was from the past or the present. A sickening sense of irritation hung in the air, and she began moving in the direction he indicated.

“Dally-“

“There’s _no fucking time, Sam!_ ” Her voice comes out as a broken screech, and she can feel the world around her heating up.

_Fuck fuck fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck-_

She slams through another door and ignores it as she did the last looking around frantically for any sign of her brother’s girlfriend. She had to find her before something bad happened, she had to-

But all she sees in fire, and she chokes back a scream at the sight- Finally, Sam and Dean seem to grasp the situation at hand, and they come in after her, looking just as horrified as she feels. Her entire body is shaking, and her mind is a jittery mess, but she can’t let this happen again.

_Where did he always say Mom was?_

And as she looks at the ceiling, she decides that she won’t let it, even if Jess is already there, blood pouring from her torso like a waterfall.

“ _Fuck,”_ She wheezes out, “ _Fuck,_ okay-“ Sam is screaming behind her, broken cries echoing out of him, and she knows they can all see the terror on the blonde’s face as she slowly bleeds and burns to nothing. “One of you- One of you has to call- Fuck, 911, hurry-“

Her eyes dart around frantically, zeroing in on the dresser, and then the bed- Right below where Jess is pinned.

The idea is half formed and a bit stupid but it’s the only one she has.

Once again, Dally slams into a body of wood, pushing it with an amount of ease she can only attribute to adrenaline and desperation in her hazy mind, heaving it up and onto the bed as she does so.

Jess is screaming now, she recognizes distantly, and Sam has joined her.

She shakes that out of her head, clamoring onto the dresser, almost falling off twice before she stabilizes herself. She looks up at Jess.

It isn’t enough. Not if she’s just standing.

_I’m sorry, this is gonna hurt._

And with that silent thought, she throws herself off and up towards the ceiling, the same, adrenaline fueled strength somehow giving her another boost as she reaches higher than should be possible, hands wrapping around Jess’s arms for a split second, an overwhelming feeling of _wrong_ surrounding her as she does so.

That second is all she needs, because she grips tight enough to bruise and all but drags a near-unconscious Jess down with her as she falls back down.

Pain flairs in her back, but she pays it no mind, passing the taller woman to her brothers with a wheezed “ _Get her out of here_ ” as Dally herself staggers to her feet and makes for the door.

Dean picks her up before she reaches it, and she doesn’t have the energy to jokingly complain as she normally would, entire being filled with a violent sort of terror that reaches to her very soul as all four exit the house in a frenzy of blood and pain and worry.

The last thing she registers before falling unconscious again is Dean finally making the damn phone call.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

The only thing that Sam can feel in the aftermath of the fire (Aside from a soul-deep shakiness and terror at what happened) is _relief_.

_Relief_ that Dally had listened to whatever it was that told her something was wrong.

_Relief_ that all four of them had made it out of that fire.

_Relief_ that whatever it was that healed Jess and Dally was doing so.

Because something had healed them- Or had at least gotten them out of life-threatening territory. He’d seen his sister falling from the ceiling, girlfriend in tow, and the angle she hit the dresser at should’ve snapped her back. He’d seen his girlfriend burning alive, blood pouring from her stomach like a water fountain, and while that would definitely leave scars, she should’ve been in intensive care for far longer than she was.

As things stood, the doctors were still scratching their heads as to how she was only unconscious with third degree burns and a horizonal, near surgical incision in her stomach- That she didn’t die was, according to them, a miracle.

He buried his face in his hands as he maintained his vigil at Jess’s bedside.

She would undoubtedly be pissed if she knew his thought process, but he couldn’t help wondering if this was his fault- If his girlfriend would be scarred for life because of him. He hardly thought they’d diminish her beauty (And even if they did, he wouldn’t care), but he doubted they’d be fun to deal with.

Jess didn’t deserve this at all.

The hand he wrapped around her own was shaky and desperate, and he found himself hoping she knew that she wasn’t alone. That someone was watching over her and wouldn’t let it happen again.

“I’m so sorry,” His voice comes out choked and hoarse, tears pricking at his eyes all over again as he speaks. “God, Jess, I’m- I’m sorry, this is all my fault. I just-“

“What’re you talking about?”

His head shoots up instantly at her voice.

“ _Jess?!?”_

She gives him a bleary look, confusion on her face as she looked around the room, movements slow- And Sam has to restrain himself from hugging her immediately, has to remind himself that she’s probably in pain.

“Sam?” Her eyes brighten a bit at the sight of him before confusion fills them again. “What happened?”

He swallows.

“Jess, I- I’m so glad you’re alright.” He gives her a shaky smile, and she takes a moment to return it. “Just- The fire, God, it was all my fault, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-“

“Shut up.” His mouth clicks shut at her command, and he quails under her glare. “This? Samuel Winchester, _this_ is not your fault, do you hear me? I can’t say I remember exactly what happened, but I doubt you went in after me and just-“ She faltered for a moment. “Okay, I don’t remember anything that happened, I’m blanking, but I know you aren’t responsible.”

He considers arguing for a moment before relenting- They can deal with this later, when one of them isn’t in the hospital.

“I’m surprised you’re able to talk so well.” His wobbly smile returned, and she stared at him before sighing and returning it herself- The relief he felt at her agreeing to abandon the topic had him relaxing a bit. “Or that you’re healed so much at all, really- I mean, you have third degree burns, your stomach was carved open-“

“Sam, breathe.”

He flushed when he realized he was babbling.

“Sorry.” She just gave him an exasperated look, and he grinned again, looser this time. “But, um- I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“Excuse me?”

The couple jumped at the unexpected voice, and Sam was halfway out of his chair before he realized it was just one of the doctors. He muttered a small apology, but the other brushed it off, a good-natured grin on his face.

“Don’t worry about it, kiddo,” The laugh lines on the old man’s face crinkled as he spoke, “With what you two just went through, I’d be surprised if that _wasn’t_ your reaction.”

“Still-“

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” He ran a hand through short, graying brown hair as he moved around the room, voice taking on a more absent-minded tone. “Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you a few questions- Namely, are your pain levels alright?”

Sam jumped when he realized he forgot to ask about those, guilt churning in his stomach all over again.

“Damnit, I knew I was forgetting something- Jess, are you-“

“I’m fine, Sam, I promise.” She turned her attention to the doctor. “And I’m actually not experiencing any pain, but thanks for checking.”

He hummed in response. “Likely due to the pain medication- Just let me check and make sure you aren’t running too low, alright?”

She motioned for him to go ahead, and he slipped past Sam as he moved to examine her.

Neither of them noticed the sly grin crossing his face, or the scent of sulfur that clung to his body, frazzled as they were. They didn’t notice that the bag of liquid pain medication he carried with him was labeled methanol.

Luckily, they didn’t have to- Mainly because someone else had already caught on.

With a crash, the doors of their room burst open, falling to the ground with ease as the other Winchester siblings stormed the room.

“That’s the second goddamn time I’ve broken a door down, what the fuck.”

Sam gapped at the two for a moment, clearly taken aback by their behavior. Jess and the doctor seemed equally surprised, though no one noticed that the doctor seemed almost panicked.

“What the hell is wrong with you two?” They both ignored him, Dally going so far as to stride past him, flask in hand. “Hey, look, I know you don’t like hospitals, but-“

Dean pulled him back, and Sam whirled to confront him, instead.

And then he heard screaming.

The unknown doctor had staggered away from his sister, hands pressed to his face and distress in his movements- The noises he was making were almost unholy in nature.

His sister simply had a coldly furious expression on her face as she spoke. “Sorry, thought you’d appreciate a drink… _You demonic son of a bitch.”_

It takes Sam about one second to realize that Dally threw holy water on the man and another to realize that it worked.

But the demon is too close to Jess, and he’s terrified of what’ll happen if he moves too much.

_Shit shit shit-_

His sister’s glare intensifies, and the demon seems to quail under it, hesitating for only a moment before it’s eyes- Black, now- Dart towards Dean and the exorcism he holds like a gun.

( _They’re hunters, in their hands it may as well be._ )

For a moment, everything is still.

And then the body collapses under the weight of a black cloud of smoke exiting its mouth, Dally throwing herself in front of Jess in an attempt to keep it from trying anything- But she didn’t need to have tried, because it hovers only for a moment before going out the window and to the ground.

There’s a thin silence that falls over them all at that, and Sam thinks, hysterically, that this had been far more anticlimactic than he expected from a demon.

“We’ve gotta get out of here.”

Jess’s voice is filled with exhaustion, and Sam can’t help but think that she’s right.

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

Dally isn’t entirely sure how long they’d been driving- Maybe somewhere around ten hours, give or take a few. Once Jess had pointed out the obvious, the three more experienced hunters in the room had leapt into action, all desperate to get away from what could damn well have been a demonic infestation.

Privately, Dally was pretty sure that Jess, at least, would be dead if she hadn’t happened to mix up her flask of holy water with her flask of regular water when she offered it to her own doctor.

Sigh catching in the back of her throat, she turned around to look into the backseat, and found the sight of both Sam and his girlfriend laying completely still and fast asleep- Though the taller of the two was twitching and shifting uncomfortably, as if in the grips of a nightmare. She shared a look with Dean, and both turned to stare out the windshield when he made a noise- A low, pained huff at the back of his throat.

They both knew that stopping wasn’t an option, and they hated it.

Silence stretches on for a moment, then another. Finally, though, Dean breaks it, voice rough and taunt with stress. “So. Demons.”

“Demons.”

Neither of them sounds particularly excited about the conversation topic- Indeed, Dean looks like he wants to curl up in a bed and never move again, and Dally can’t say she feels much better.

She scrubs her hands over her eyes, exhaustion seeping into her very being- She’d suggest stopping for coffee, but they both know it’s too risky, after the hospital. They’ll just have to make do, for now- Maybe switch at the next pit stop. God knows her brother needs the rest.

“Demons,” She says again. Then, because they can’t keep repeating the word, she continues, “Why the hell did they target Jess, though?”

“Convenience? Could be they wanted to cause some chaos.”

“Right after that fire? The one that was setting up to be just like-“

“Yeah, okay, I get it,” Dean’s voice was rough, though from how long he’d been driving or emotion, she couldn’t tell. “But shit, Dally, how the hell’d they find her?”

“I don’t know. They could’ve just been waiting in the wings for when we got back.”

Her brother paused for a moment, glanced behind them, and then started to talk, voice slow. “Actually… Now that I think about it, something happened at Jericho. I’d just dismissed it- Thought it was some weird law enforcement thing- But now-“

“You aren’t so sure?” Her voice wasn’t any brighter, that much she knew, but she turned a bit to let him know that she was paying attention.

Even if she wanted to pass out.

“The officers took her into a different room while they talked to me- Don’t know the specifics myself, you’ll have to ask Jess, but I know they tried to inject her with something.” He grinned as his voice picked up a bit. “She threw a table at them.”

Dally huffed, but didn’t try to hide her own smile. _Of course Sammy would fall for a girl who can throw tables_.

Both fell quiet after a moment, good humor lost.

“Dally, what the fuck are we gonna do?”

“I don’t know, De,” Her voice was just as tired as his was, and the look in his eyes- One of a man who was lost and terrified for his family- Hurt her. “I don’t know.”

\--------------------------------------------------Winchester---------------------------------------------------

It’s dark when they arrive- Dally had eventually convinced Dean to switch out with her and take a nap, the younger two still passed out in the back seat of his car. That she managed to convince him to take a break at all, really, spoke volumes of how exhausted they both were- But with any luck, this would fix at least one of their issues.

_Please say yes, we need this… Please help us._

Instead of getting out and waking everyone up, however, she simply sits in the dark and quiet, eyes closed and trying to absorb everything that had happened recently.

God, why was it always the Winchesters who got fucked over? It wasn’t _fair_ … But then, when was life ever?

With a sigh, Dally turned to the man beside her, nudging him and muttering a quick “ _Dean_ ” under her breath- Luckily, that was all it took, and he jerked awake with a quiet start, eyes glancing around wildly to search out a (Currently) nonexistent threat.

“We’re here.”

He hums a bit, but doesn’t respond, and everything falls quiet again for a moment.

“We should probably wake them up,” Dean’s voice is hesitant despite his words, and Dally gives a single, short nod in response before moving to get out of the car, her brother mirroring her actions and going to open the door Sam had been leaning on.

His indignant sputter at such a rude awakening made Dean snicker, and Dally found herself frantically biting back a laugh as she shook Jess awake, ignoring the blonde’s bleary-eyed questions.

Sam, however, seemed to quickly realize where they were, and he staggered back to his feet, hulking over the rest of them as he offered to carry Jess to the door- His girlfriend agreed readily enough, and he scooped her injured, bandage coated figure close to his chest.

No one doubted that this was just as much for his peace of mind as it was for her health.

As a group, they strode up to the house, broken down, rusted cars scattered around them like metallic wildflowers- Unsurprising, though, given the name of the house they’d come to was the Singer Salvage Yard.

Someone had to teach Dean how to restore cars as well as he did.

As the man currently occupying the house had been informed of their arrival by Dally, all she had to do was give the door a solid knock before she heard measured footsteps making their way towards her family- And despite everything that had happened recently, she found herself relaxing as the door swung open.

“About damn time you idjits got here.”

_Good old Bobby_ , she thought, a wry grin stretching over her face- And despite his words, Dally could see a mirrored one reflected on the old man’s bearded face.

“Sorry about that,” Dean snarked, “We only drove more than _24 hours_ to get our asses here. Do you mind?”

Bobby rolled his eyes, but stepped aside regardless, gaze roaming them over for any signs of injury as they passed him- The black-haired woman gave him a tired grin at the sight. He huffed, closing the door behind them and making his way into the kitchen, shot glasses (Undoubtably full of holy water) already on the counter, and a glass of whiskey farther down.

She couldn’t help making a face at the sight, and he scoffed.

“It ain’t for you, princess. Drink the damn water.”

“Ironic, given it’s _holy water_.” Despite her snarky words, Dally downed the glass in one go, eyeing her brothers (And Jess) out of the corner of her eye as they did the same while she snuck a Dr. Pepper out of the fridge.

That got an eyeroll from Bobby, but he didn’t say anything.

Sam chose that moment to speak up. “Bobby, I- I can’t thank you enough for helping us out like this. It means a lot.” No one said anything about how wet his eyes appeared for a moment, but Jess- Now seated on a chair next to him- wrapped him in a loose hug.

Dally found herself grateful, all over again, for the woman that her baby brother had fallen in love with.

Bobby just seemed a bit uncomfortable. “Yeah, well- Someone has to make sure you morons actually stay alive.”

The atmosphere was fairly relaxed, all things considered, and Dally felt terrible that she would have to break it up- But they had to figure out what the hell was going on, and they couldn’t do that looking after an inexperienced, severely injured hunter. Someone would get killed.

She sighed, drawing the attention of the others to herself.

“Look, Jess, I like you- I do- But… You can’t stay with us.”

Everyone reacted about as expected- Jess looked a bit surprised and also scared (Which, fair, she’d almost burned alive), Dean looked upset (No doubt because he’d already gotten attached to her), and Sam looked an interesting mixture of terrified, furious, and resigned.

Quietly, she thanked her past self for having the foresight to discuss this possibility with Bobby, and then the man himself for speaking up before anyone could raise any complaints.

“She can’t go with you- Look at the girl! She’s been burned to hell!” Jess looked a bit offended at that, and he scoffed. “Don’t give me that look- It’s damn true and you know it. You ain’t in any condition to go wandering around the country.”

“Okay, so where the hell is she supposed to stay?” Dean’s grip on the bottle of beer ( _When the hell had he gotten that?_ ) was tightening by the minute. “We can’t exactly have her go home- What if it happens again?”

Dally sighed and decided to step in. “Why do you think we came here?” Her brother gave her a furious look, and she barely refrained from flinching at the sight. “Look, going home is too risky, she can’t go with us- She’d get killed, don’t look at me like that- And Bobby is one of the best damn hunters we know, if not _the_ best hunter we know. She’d be safe here!”

“And if it _does_ manage to get past him? If it _doesn’t_ manage to get past us? Look, all I’m saying is-“

“Enough!” Just about everyone jumped once Jess raised her voice, and Dally gave her a sheepish look when she realized that they’d left the very woman they’d been talking about out of the conversation that would most affect her. “I can’t say that I wanna split up with you guys so soon- Especially after what just happened- But…” She sighed, an almost self-deprecating look in her eyes. “I’d just slow you down like this- I’m already not experienced, and I’m injured on top of that. It wouldn’t be fair to ask the three of you to look after me.”

_That_ got a frown out of all of them, and Sam was the first to speak up. “Look, Jess- I get what you mean, and it wouldn’t be safe for you like this… But that doesn’t mean you’d be a burden or anything.” The blonde opened her mouth to respond, but he pushed on. “No, listen- Yes, you’re inexperienced, and yes, you’re injured, but that doesn’t mean you’d be a burden. I mean- Hell, if there’s anyone who could take to hunting quickly, it’d be you!”

“We don’t think you’re weak, Jess,” Dally said, voice the same kind of gentle that she’d used all the way back when Sam had found out about hunting, “It’s that we care about you- Even though some of us have only just met you- And we don’t want you to get hurt when we could prevent it.”

The younger woman huffed, but didn’t argue, instead choosing to address another issue. “So I’ll be staying with… Bobby, was it?” At his awkward nod, she gave a weak smile. “Sorry to impose on you, then, but I appreciate you being willing to help.”

“These morons gotta have someone on their side,” His voice was gruff as he spoke. “And trust me, you’ll hardly be a problem- God knows those kids can whine when they feel like it. Hell, you’ll probably be like a saint compared to them.”

Sam smirked a bit, amusement dancing in his eyes. “Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Bobby.” He got a raised eyebrow in response, and he grinned, voice becoming a stage whisper. “She can be a bit of a handful- Had me buy her a crown when she broke her arm last year.”

Jess scoffed, a small “ _It was a_ **_tiara_ ** _, you goof_ ” escaping her in response- And Dally finally found herself relaxing as she realized that her family was going to be (Relatively) safe. It would be awkward at first, but Bobby was nothing if not a badass, and she trusted him to keep an eye on Jess- And hell, he was about as good as a hospital, the paranoid bastard. As for her brothers…

Dean met her eyes mid laugh, and hard edge to them, and she wasn’t blind to the tense set of Sam’s shoulders- Her boys were pissed, and honestly, she was much the same.

They’d stay the night, and make sure Jess got settled in well- Get some rest themselves, while they were at it. But then? Well. They were Winchesters.

They had work to do.


End file.
